Venusberg | That's not your heart, it's a piece of helicopter casing

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Abortion as it exists in El Salvador today tends to operate on three levels. The well-off retain the "right to choose" that comes of simply having money. They can fly to Miami for an abortion, or visit the private office of a discreet and well-compensated doctor. Among the very poor, you can still find the back-alley world described by D.C. and the others who turn up in hospitals with damaged or lacerated wombs. Then there are the women in the middle; they often rely on home-brewed cures that are shared on the Internet or on a new underground railroad that has formed to aid them.

"I keep two telephones in my purse," I was told in San Salvador by one woman who wished not to be identified because her work is illegal. I'd heard of her through an abortion rights advocate, and I asked to meet her in person. "One phone is for work and personal matters," she went on to explain in fluent English. "The second one is for the other thing." Although she doesn't work directly in women's health care, her job keeps her traveling and in contact with people working for health groups and women's rights groups who do outreach throughout the country. "I would estimate that there are about 20 people who are working in different and specific places who have this phone number," she said. They pass it along when they think it is necessary.

This is a long but fascinating article on El Salvador which helps to demonstrate precisely the kind of world our friends in Dakota seek to create. Particularly horrendous is the idea that where the womb has become infected and has to be removed, it then becomes evidence in the following prosecution, packaged and held by the police.

Oh, and while we're newsblogging, for those who have not had a chance to read ~~Seymour Stein's~~ Sy Hersh's article on Iran, it's here, and a rich vein of the American aphoristic tradition. "It's a tough decision, but we made it in Japan", for those in favour of nuclear strikes on Iran. "Iran could take Basra with ten mullahs and a sound truck", for those against. Marvellous.

1 Comments:

I'm still trying to imagine what this article would look like if it *had* been written by Sire Records prez (and onetime Ramones producer, no?) Seymour Stein. AW YEAH.

By adamgreenfield, at 9:57 PM