El Salvador Under Pressure for Repressive Abortion Laws

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UN Human Rights during the current Records workshop in Geneva have accused El Salvador in too opressive abortion laws, commenting on the documented cases of women, who were prosecuted and jailed, Amnesty International report said Tuesday.

MOSCOW, October 28 (RIA Novosti) — UN Human Rights during the current Records workshop in Geneva have accused El Salvador in too opressive abortion laws, commenting on the documented cases of women, who were prosecuted and jailed, Amnesty International report said Tuesday.

“The effects of these laws amount to institutionalized violence, torture and other forms of ill-treatment against women and girls,” Amnesty said in the report, adding that nine countries urged El Salvador to reform its abortion laws at the workshop, while another 12 countries expressed concern.

Among the countries, calling on El Salvador to alter its laws was Spain, which earlier this year got rid of its draft legislation that would limit access to abortion in the country.

“All women in prison for having an abortion [must] be freed, [as well as those imprisoned] for miscarriage, and that their criminal records be wiped out,” the Spanish representative was quoted as saying by Amnesty.

According to El Salvador’s laws, women and girls found guilty of having an abortion face between two to eight years in jail, while medical practitioners face prison sentences of up to 12 years for facilitating an abortion.

The workshop, which is part of the UN’s state-driven Universal Periodic Review (UPR), opened its 20th session on Monday, during which the human rights records of 14 member states will be examined.

El Salvador has been requested by the UPR to put forward the recommendations it will adopt to address the repressive laws by March 2015.

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