Esperanza Martínez (politician)

Esperanza Martínez Lleida de Portillo (born 26 April 1959) is a Paraguayan medical doctor and politician, currently serving as senator since 2013.

Esperanza Martínez
Official portrait, 2023
Senator of Paraguay
Assumed office
30 June 2013
Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay
In office
15 August 2008 – 22 June 2012
PresidentFernando Lugo
Preceded byOscar Martínez Doldán
Succeeded byAntonio Arbo
Personal details
Born
Esperanza Martínez Lleida

(1959-04-26) April 26, 1959 (age 65)
Asunción, Paraguay
Political partyPublic Participation Party
Other political
affiliations
Guasú Front
SpouseCarlos Portillo MD
Children3
Parents
  • Benito Martínez
  • Mercedes Lleida
Occupation
  • Medical doctor
  • politician

She previously served as Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare from 2008 to 2012, under President Fernando Lugo.[1]

In May 2012 she was elected vice-president for the 65th World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization.[2]

She is an advocate of liberalizing implementation of laws regarding abortion in Paraguay to help a pregnant 10-year-old who was raped by her stepfather, complaining that to those who opposed the treatment, the unnamed girl "became a uterus. She became a birth canal."[3]

References

edit
  1. ^ CIA World Leaders Archived May 28, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Pan American Health Organization
  3. ^ "Paraguay senator says pregnant 10-year-old denied abortion 'became a uterus'". Associated Press. The Guardian. 10 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2015.