Nayib Bukele ran as an outsider, promising change across El Salvador. Now, he has the opportunity to write a new chapter for his country’s women—one in which they have safe, legal access to abortion.
A historic decision in December allowed Imelda Cortez to walk free, absolved of all charges, after 19 months in prison—and marked a milestone in the fight to end El Salvador’s cruel, draconian ban on abortion.
“The square was physically divided in two sides,” she recalls. On the right, a tide of green handkerchiefs had formed by those in favor of decriminalizing abortion; on the left, their opponents wore blue scarves.
In two back-to-back landmark decisions, Mexico’s Supreme Court last month ruled that denying women access to abortion after rape is a violation of their human rights.
El Salvador’s Supreme Court commuted the sentence of a woman serving 30 years in prison for a stillbirth—declaring that “arguments of a legal nature, of justice and equity, justify her commutation.”
In El Salvador, being poor and pregnant means losing your basic rights. Now, the nation’s lawmakers are considering permitting abortion in specific situations.
It was October 19, 2016—the day of the first women’s strike in Argentina. It was the day 80,000 people took the streets of Santiago to proclaim: “Not One Less.”