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.

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

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

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."