The Untold Story of How El Salvador Passed a Total Ban on Abortion

Peter Baklinski : Apr 14, 2014
LifeSiteNews.com

It took a national prayer campaign and a miraculous turning of hearts in politics.

(Toronto, Canada)—It is totally illegal for a mother to abort her child in El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America. But the amazing story about how a country with a name meaning "savior" came to constitutionally protect its unborn children from conception—despite ongoing massive international pressure to the contrary—remains practically unknown. (Photo via LSN)

"It was a miracle," said Julia Cardenal, president of Sí a la Vida (Yes to Life Foundation) of San Salvador, to attendees at Campaign Life Coalition’s national pro-life conference last weekend in Toronto.

Cardenal related to about 200 attendees how underdeveloped countries like El Salvador depend on foreign aid to help improve the country. But she said that such aid usually comes with "reproductive rights" strings attached.

She remembers one cabinet minister saying after returning from a foreign assistance meeting in Europe: "All these people want to do is talk about abortion."

"If you go to the international conferences of the United Nations, it’s incredible how in every treaty they want to put [in] abortion," she said.

In 1998, a massive pro-life effort resulted in El Salvador removing from its 1973 penal code exceptions that permitted abortion, including to save the mother’s life, and in cases of rape and serious congenital disorder. Abortion was now illegal, but the victory was tenuous.

Pro-lifers feared foreign aid groups would too easily woo the country into signing onto a treaty that would override the penal code and effectively bring back abortion. They knew the only way to guarantee protection for the unborn was a constitutional amendment that no treaty could override. (Photo via LSN)

Cardenal and her group began a national campaign for a constitutional amendment that would "defend the right to life from conception."

They passed the first hurdle when about half of the country’s legislators voted for the amendment. But for the amendment to be enshrined in the constitution, it had to be ratified by a two-thirds majority in the next parliamentary period.

But then an election was called and a significant number of pro-life legislators lost their seats to socialists. Pro-lifers felt sure the amendment was doomed.

"We thought it was going to be impossible to get it, but we said we have to try. We have to do our best," said Cardenal.

Pro-lifers immediately ramped-up their efforts, calling for a national prayer campaign. The spiritual battle reached its height during the last three days of the legislative period for that year…

What happened next shocked everyone.

"When the time came for the vote, the first one who spoke was a socialist woman who said: ‘I’m going to give my vote as a woman and as a medical doctor for the constitutional amendment."

"After that, there was no vote against it," said Cardenal to applause.

"We could not believe [it]. It was a miracle."