Our Bodies Our Lives

Follow the conference live!

The Salvadoran Constitution foresees the absolute prohibition of abortion. Women who had an abortion, a miscarriage or a stillbirth, are treated like murderers and regularly condemned to up to 35 years or more. Almost all of these women are poor.

In February 2018, Teodora Vázquez was released after ten years in prison. - She will testimony during the conference about her past and present situation. - On 13th March 2018, Maira Figueroa came free, also after 10 years. Both were condemned to 35 years in prison. Both are now free, but they are still considered guilty. 

This has to change. There are still more than 25 women in prison. They all have to be free again.And the inhumane, totally misogynous law has at least to be reformed, if not revoked. Because it is a law that turns women into murderers.
We need to act now! The new legislature in El Salvador will start on 1st May 2018. Current legislators have time until then to vote in favour of amendments to the law that are already on the table.

Find articles for reference here:

• Sentenced because of Abortion: A Visit in the Ilopango Women’s Prison, El Salvador
• Miscarriage of Justice 
• El Salvador: where women are thrown into jail for losing a baby
• El Salvador woman jailed after stillbirth seeks freedom (video)
• El Salvador: 'I had a miscarriage. The judge accused me of murder' (video)
• Jailed for a Miscarriage (video)

Time:

14:30-15:00

Registration

15:00-15:15

Welcome and introduction by Molly Scott Cato, Member of the European Parliament (MEP)

15:15-16:00

Panel I : The absolute criminalization of abortion and its consequences over women's life in El Salvador

Chair: Bodil Valero, Member of the European Parliament (MEP)

Presentation of the new film by Swedish-Salvadoran filmmaker Israel Benavides on abortion in El Salvador. Screening the film trailer and discussion (confirmed)

Law on abortion and its consequences, Bertha De León - Lawyer, Colectiva feminista (confirmed)

Q&A (10 min)

16:00-17:00

Panel II: Female lives matter

Chair: Terry Reintke, MEP

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, recently released woman, speaks out (confirmed)

María Teresa Rivera, convicted of abortion, then freed, currently living in Sweden, granted political asylum (confirmed)

Victoria Carolina Ramírez Estrada, gynaecologist on direct consequences of the law (confirmed)

Christa Rahner-Göhring, Amnesty International El Salvador Coordination Group Germany, on the international support campaigns (confirmed)

Q&A (10 min)

17:00-18:00

Panel III : Towards a change of the Abortion Law in El Salvador (video conference)

Chair: Ernest Urtasun, MEP

Nídia Diaz, Salvadoran MP (present via video)

MPs involved in changing the law (present via video)

European External Action Service EEAS (tbc)

Emma Julia Villatoro Tario, Ambassador of El Salvador to the EU and Belgium (confirmed)

Q&A (10 min)

18-00-18:30

Panel IV : Wrapping up: Action Plan to get women free and support the changing of the law

Chair: Molly Scott-Cato,

MEP & Ernest Urtasun, MEP

The conference will be followed by a reception at Casa America Latina-La Maison de l'Amérique Latine
  
Speakers:

• Israel Benavides, Swedish-Salvadoran filmmaker
• Bertha De León, Lawyer, Colectiva feminista
• Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, recently released woman
• María Teresa Rivera, convicted of abortion, then freed, currently living in Sweden, granted political asylum
• Victoria Carolina Ramírez Estrada, gynaecologist on direct consequences of the law
• Christa Rahner-Göhring, Amnesty International El Salvador Coordination Group Germany, on the international support campaigns 

• Nídia Diaz, Salvadoran MP (present via video)
• Salvadoran MPs involved in changing the law (present via video)
• European External Action Service EEAS (tbc)
• Emma Julia Villatoro Tario, Ambassador of El Salvador to the EU and Belgium

• Molly Scott Cato, Member of the European Parliament (MEP)
• Bodil Valero, Member of the European Parliament (MEP)
• Terry Reintke, Member of the European Parliament (MEP)
• Ernest Urtasun, Member of the European Parliament (MEP)

For more information on the conference and The Greens European Free Alliance follow this link.