Abortion and the penal system in El Salvador: A look from critical studies of the Law

Abstract

This article explains the historical, social, and legal context around abortion as a social and health problem. At the same time, arguments are given that define abortion as a human right. It is explained, how the absolute criminalization of this medical resource implies that, in El Salvador an inhuman penal system prevails. Likewise, it is exposed that women’s organizations approach this problem as a public health demand and a human rights dispute, the latter term taken from the legal field contributes to the analysis, with a perspective of the transformation of conflicts. According to the approaches of the critical theory of law, if an inhuman criminal law is not studied, one could not speak of a human criminal law.