New York Times refuses corrective op-ed regarding Salvadoran abortion story

Feb 22, 2007 / 08:36 am

The New York Times has refused to publish a corrective op-ed from the Salvadoran group Yes to Life.  The letter reportedly points out further errors in a piece the newspaper printed last month about abortion in El Salvador.

Several groups have attempted to correct the New York Times story, which Salvadorans and pro-lifers say is full of inaccuracies.

The Times inaccurately reported that women in El Salvador are imprisoned for up to 30 years for abortions. It also claimed that one woman, featured in the story, who was imprisoned for infanticide was actually imprisoned for an abortion. 

The latest letter rejected by the Times was written by Julia Regina de Cardenal, President of ‘Yes to Life,’ and one of the experts who was quoted in the original Times piece.  De Cardenal’s letter attempted to set the record straight on the U.S. new-giant’s story, LifeSiteNews.com has reported.

"Salvadoran reporters who investigated the issue of criminal prosecutions for abortion said that in the past seven years they found only three women were convicted for procuring illegal abortions and none of them were imprisoned,” wrote De Cardenal in her letter. “The primary purpose of criminal prosecutions is to charge abortionists who take advantage of women who find themselves in difficult situations."

"Government figures show maternal mortality went down in years following the tightening up of our abortion law. Women are safer because of our laws,” wrote Cardenal in response to the original Times article’s claim that women’s health has suffered under the abortion laws.