Terminating a pregnancy in El Salvador, legally and safely, has been practically impossible since 1998. With the reform of the Penal Code, El Salvador became one of the last countries in the world to maintain a total ban on abortion. Since then, Salvadoran women are forced to continue with pregnancies even when they are the result of rape, even when their life or health is at risk, or when serious genetic malformations are diagnosed in the product that make life outside the uterus unviable. They are accused of having caused the abortions even without evidence or even when the evidence shows otherwise.

Since this legal setback, the Salvadoran State has ignored international agreements, has ignored the calls of expert organizations in health and human rights such as the World Health Organization (WHO) or the United Nations (UN) Women who have argued that the total prohibition of abortion is a serious violation of human rights and have urged States to modify their regulatory frameworks to eliminate the criminalization of abortion that affects women in general, but especially the least served, the most vulnerable, those who have fewer opportunities to succeed.

According to the current penal code, women in situations of abortion can be sentenced to up to 8 years in prison, or up to 50 when charged with "aggravated homicide". Criminalizing and imprisoning even women who suffer miscarriages.

El Salvador's Ministry of Health (MINSAL) estimates that 20,000 illegal and unsafe abortions occurred between 2005 and 2008 alone, despite the total ban. In 2011, the WHO reported that 11 percent of women who underwent illegal abortions in the country died as a result of unsafe procedures, performed illegally and clandestinely, without the care of trained health personnel, without the use of appropriate technology or clinical supplies recommended and used in the world.