By now, the world is well aware of the Zika virus, which is affecting pregnant women in Central America and harming their babies. The virus is hard to detect, and doctors are officially warning all pregnant women to get tested as soon as possible, even if they are not showing any symptoms. In an effort to combat the virus, government officials in El Salvador have requested that all women in the country postpone having children in the next two years.

Sounds like a reasonable solution right? Well, it isn't.

Not only is it impossible for a government to restrict the sex lives of their citizens, but also El Salvador is also known to be one of the most religious and conservative countries. El Salvador still has heavy abortion bans in place, and have even imprisoned women for having miscarriages on the grounds that they wanted to kill their baby. Since El Salvador is so heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic religion, they consider life to begin at contraception, and any intentional (and sometimes even unintentional) miscarriages are considered murder under the law.

So what does it mean for a country that doesn't allow abortions, provides very little sex education and has very limited options when it comes to birth control? It makes it next to impossible to put off having children for two years.

Before someone makes the argument that women in El Salvador can just stop having sex, consider this: El Salvador is considered the most dangerous country in the Western Hemisphere, and with extreme violence comes extreme violence against women. Sexual assault and rape are very prevalent in El Salvador, and there are many cases of women getting pregnant from an attack. However, even if the baby is conceived from an assault, it's life is still protected under the law. There have even been instances where a woman has been raped, impregnated, miscarried and then thrown into prison because the miscarriage was "proven" to be intentional since she had miscarried.

The system in El Salvador is failing their people. Women are being punished for crimes they did not commit, whether the punishment is coming from their government or the Zika virus. Women have little rights in El Salvador, and their bodies are under constant scrutinzation.