Florida wants tougher abortion laws, but do victims of rape, incest, trafficking even matter? | Opinion

In November, I joined legislators from around the country on a fact-finding mission to El Salvador to learn about the consequences of the country’s total abortion ban. During our visit to the Izalco Detention Center, I met a woman named Sara.

She was pregnant when she slipped in the laundry room of her home in Cojutepeque. After falling, she turned pale, had an urgent need to use the bathroom and felt something eject from her body. Sara’s mother found her and took her to the hospital, where doctors accused her of an “incomplete abortion” and called the police. She is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence.

Sara is just one of dozens of women who have been imprisoned for suffering obstetric emergencies under El Salvador’s draconian abortion laws.

This wasn’t always the norm in the Central American country. Until 1998, Salvadoran women could legally get an abortion if they were victims of rape; the pregnancy posed a threat to the mother’s health; or the the fetus was not viable with life.

But 22 years ago, El Salvador’s congress passed a law criminalizing abortion under any —

and all — circumstances. Since then, at least 147 women have been charged with having an abortion or, worse, aggravated homicide. At least 36 of these women were sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

In the United States, we have seen state legislatures across the country put forth a wave of anti-abortion bills frighteningly similar to the law in El Salvador. Although just days ago we commemorated the 47th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it is clear now more than ever that Republican-led state legislatures are trying to strip away a person’s right to make their own reproductive health choices. Florida is one of those states.

A few days into the 2020 legislative session, several bills were filed that would take away reproductive healthcare for millions of people. HB 271 would make it a third-degree felony for anyone who “knowingly or purposefully performs or induces an abortion” if a fetal heartbeat has been detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. In other words, anyone who has a miscarriage can be imprisoned for up to five years if the state persuades a jury that the miscarriage was caused by a deliberate act.

If enacted, HB 271 could criminalize people in Florida, just like in El Salvador. They would be stripped of any right to terminate a pregnancy if they were raped (including if the rape victim is a teenager or child), or even if their own life were endangered. In addition, anyone who suffers a miscarriage could be charged with a crime.

The multitude of possible causes for miscarriages, conservatively estimated at 20 percent of all pregnancies, are wide ranging, difficult to detect and beyond a person’s control, compounding the legal jeopardy they may face. Put simply, under HB 271, people would be subject to a witch hunt. Out of the approximately 27,000 Florida women who miscarry annually after six weeks of pregnancy, there would almost certainly be a percentage of them wrongfully prosecuted because of aggressive policing or improper medical diagnosis. Any observer of our justice system can conclude that it will be poor people and people from marginalized communities who are most at risk for prosecution. This is certainly the case in El Salvador, where the majority of the people who have fallen victim to the abortion ban are poor and indigenous.

This is not a battle that can be fought on one front; we must fight at both the state and federal levels to ensure that a woman can begin a pregnancy without fear of being wrongfully prosecuted.

One of the primary reasons I have decided to endorse U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president is the urgent need to ensure that we have someone at the highest level of office in this country who understands the stakes, will fight this injustice alongside us, and will protect the reproductive health of everyone.

Until just 10 years ago, federal laws allowed insurance companies to charge women more for basic healthcare and deny maternity coverage to maintain profit margins. Working moms weren’t protected by family-leave laws and employers and insurers could opt out of providing coverage for birth-control pills.

We must trust women and their families to make the choices that are right for them, while ensuring they can get the healthcare they need. We deserve a president, and legislators, who will fight for the future and health of everyone.

State Rep. Cindy Polo represents House District 103.

This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 7:18 PM.