Last week, anti-abortion rhetoric escalated in the Republican primary with the suggestion that women who obtain abortions should receive “some kind of punishment.” While the inflammatory suggestion got disavowed, it raises the question: what would happen if abortion were not only to be outlawed but also criminalized?
We don’t have to imagine it; we can look South.
Argentina, like many South and Latin American countries, has outlawed abortion since the 1880s. According to the nonprofit Human Rights Watch, Article 88 of Argentina’s penal code states that a woman who causes her own abortion can face one to four years of prison. Unsafe abortions are the leading cause of maternal death there.
Brazil only permits abortion when the mother’s life is in danger or when the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest. Its National Health System estimates that a quarter million women go to emergency rooms annually because of unsafe abortions, which constitute the fourth leading cause of maternal death.
Abortion is criminalized in Mexico with one to five years in prison. Columbia also outlaws abortion in most circumstances. Regardless, almost a half a million occur annually there, and unsafe abortion is the leading cause of maternal mortality.
Chile is one of 29 countries worldwide that outlaws abortion in all circumstances – even when the life of the mother is in danger. But despite the potential punishment of three to five years of prison for having one, about 35 percent of pregnancies are terminated with abortions.
It would be great to think that these laws are antiquities put on display to remind us of a less enlightened time. But they’ve been enforced.
Last summer in El Salvador a woman who miscarried in a hospital was handcuffed to her bed and later sentenced to 30 years in prison. After international outcry, a court pardoned her. But according to The Telegraph of London, 17 Salvadoran women are currently serving multi-decade prison sentences for miscarriages they insist weren’t abortions.
Women and girls have also been prosecuted here in the US. While they can’t be charged for ending their pregnancies lawfully, they’ve faced prosecution for taking matters into their own hands as increasingly restrictive laws have made abortion more expensive and less available. Thirty eight states allow for the prosecution of a homicide for the unlawful termination of a pregnancy.
And a Pennsylvania mother is currently serving a nine to 18 month sentence for providing morning after pills used by her teenage daughter.
