AMID the recent threats and promises from politicians and multinational companies over Scottish independence, one fact about freedom in the British union never surfaced.

Thousands of women have been forced to travel from Northern Ireland in order to end a pregnancy because the province still remains uncovered by the 1967 Abortion Act which legalised terminations.

In central America, notorious for anti-abortion punishment, poor women lack the means for remedy available elsewhere, faced with the prospect of a child they cannot raise, or expecting in the wake of sexual assault.

And today campaigners will shine a probing light on repression in El Salvador, the region’s smallest country, but the biggest tyrant among seven nations against women’s reproductive liberty.

Activists will see the hard-hitting film Life At Any Price, which shows the monstrous cruelty behind the abortion ban in a land where some women have received 30-year jail sentences after suffering miscarriages.

The screening and subsequent debate is part of the special Festival of Choice events, as human rights defenders around the world demand that women have safe access to abortion everywhere.

The film presentation and debate, organised by the Central America Women’s Network (CAWN) and Amnesty International, leads up to this Sunday’s international day of action by the September 28 movement.

The CAWN partner in El Salvador, the Asociacion Ciudadana (Group for the Decriminalisation of Therapeutic Abortion) has launched the “We are all the 17” drive.

This campaign is building global backing to demand pardons for 17 women, all from deprived backgrounds, who have been imprisoned for the “crime” of pregnancy complications.

Most of the women experienced obstetric problems during their pregnancies and gave birth without any medical assistance.

The women were bleeding when they managed to reach a hospital.

But when they asked for help, rather than gain support, the women were re­p­orted and prosecuted for aggravated murder.

Between 2000 and 2011, 129 women were prosecuted for abortion or aggravated homicide related to pregnancy.

But this represents only a small percentage of all the women who undergo unsafe abortions in El Salvador, estimated to be more than 35,000 each year.

The majority are poor and young, with over 84 per cent of women accused under the draconian anti-abortion law under 30 years old.

Only a quarter of the prosecuted women attended secondary school or university and nearly eight in 10 have no income or earn less than the minimum wage.

The campaign appeals for solidarity from people who share the women’s bid to regain their freedom, return to their families and rebuild their lives.

Reproductive rights are human rights recognised by the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

The right to sexual and reproductive health implies that people are able to enjoy a mutually satisfying and safe relationship, free from coercion or violence and without fear of infection or unwanted pregnancy.

It also implies that they can regulate their fertility without adverse or dangerous consequences.

Sexual and reproductive rights provide the framework within which sexual and reproductive well-being can be achieved.

There are two healthcare systems in El Salvador. The first is private, expensive and of fairly high quality, and the other, provided free by the state, is of poor quality, lacks adequate technological equipment and has overworked and poorly paid medical staff.

The maternal mortality rate is comparatively high for the region, at 110 per 100,000 live births.

The standard of public health services, financed through a social tax, is so low that many families get into massive debt to give birth in a private hospital.

While the government has earmarked public funds to ensure access to family planning services, coverage remains low.

Teenage pregnancy rates are high — by the age of 20 more than four in 10 women have become pregnant. In 2011 more than 26,000 girls and teenagers became pregnant after sexual abuse.

The teenage pregnancy rate is much higher in women with low educational levels (66 per cent) and with lower socioeconomic status (60 per cent).

A paper entitled From Hospital to Jail, to be launched in the eve of the public screening by CAWN and the Reproductive Health Matters Journal, explains that this restrictive legislation has affected the suicide rate of pregnant women.

Suicide was the third cause of maternal deaths in 2011, according to the Maternal Death Surveillance System of El Salvador’s health ministry.

The paper establishes that the lack of alternatives for women with unwanted pregnancies is leading many to kill themselves.

Under current Salvadoran law, anyone who performs an abortion with the woman’s consent, or a woman who self-induces or consents to someone else inducing her abortion, can be imprisoned.

Healthcare professionals are obliged to maintain patient confidentiality, but also to report any crimes to the police, including that of abortion.

Virginia Lopez Calvo is project co-ordinator at the Central America Women’s Network.
8 The screening of Life At Any Price and the discussion take place from 6.30-9.30pm tonight at Amnesty International, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW. Free tickets can be reserved at tinyurl.com/n7uo7m9.