El Salvador's abortion law, which says that abortion in all cases is a "serious felony ... for everyone involved, including the woman who has the abortion." The law, enacted in 1998, stipulates that women who undergo abortion can be sentenced to two to eight years in prison, while the abortion provider can receive a six- to 12-year sentence and anyone who assists the woman in obtaining the procedure can be imprisoned for two to five years. In addition, women who undergo an abortion of a fetus determined by a court to be "viable" could face charges of aggravated homicide, carrying a 30- to 50- year sentence, the Times Magazine reports. According to Sara Valdes, director of the Hospital de Maternidad, law enforcement officials also have said that physicians are not allowed to operate on ectopic pregnancies until the fallopian tube ruptures or until there is fetal death. According to the Times Magazine, abortion in the country "tends to operate on three levels": the wealthy women, who retain the "'right to choose' that comes of simply having money"; the "very poor" women, who often "turn up in hospitals with damaged or lacerated wombs"; and the women in "the middle," who frequently rely on "home-brewed cures" they find online or on a "new underground railroad that has formed to aid them."
