Raped, miscarried, arrested: Inside El Salvador’s ‘outrageous’ state-sponsored persecution of vulnerable women

Raped, miscarried, arrested: Inside El Salvador’s ‘outrageous’ state-sponsored persecution of vulnerable women

Dozens of women are serving decades-long sentences in the country for miscarriages and stillbirths, often as a result of rape, with some handcuffed to a bed while they are still haemorrhaging. Lucy Anna Gray speaks to the activists and lawyers fighting to free them and change the law once and for all

The Independent, Tom Ford
Sep 1, 2019

After 33-months in prison for having a stillbirth as a result of rape, Evelyn Hernandez was released. Less than two years later she was dragged back to trial with prosecutors demanding she be sentenced to 40 years for aggravated homicide. The now 21-year-old spent three years going through trials, jail and scrutiny, all while she was still recovering. In her first trial, Hernandez didn’t use the sexual assault as defence out of fear of violent repercussion. It wasn’t until she later received therapy that she would share this information.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/el-salvador-abortion-rape-laws-miscarriage-evelyn-hernandez-birth-a9083021.html


Prosecutors ask for 40 years in a controversial abortion trial in El Salvador

Prosecutors ask for 40 years in a controversial abortion trial in El Salvador

By Flora Charner, CNN
August 16, 2019

(CNN)The controversial retrial of a rape victim in El Salvador concluded Friday, a case that has drawn international attention because of the country's strict abortion laws and could see the young woman's sentence lengthened.

Evelyn Hernandez was a teenager when she was first accused of inducing an abortion and later convicted of aggravated murder, claims which she has repeatedly rejected.

Continued: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/15/world/evelyn-hernandez-abortion-retrial-aug-15-intl/


El Salvador – Retrial for teenage rape victim accused of inducing an abortion and convicted of aggravated murder resumes

Retrial for teenage rape victim accused of inducing an abortion and convicted of aggravated murder resumes

August 15, 2019
by CNN Wire

The retrial of a teenage rape victim will resume on Thursday in El Salvador, in a case that has drawn global attention to the country’s strict anti-abortion laws.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez, now 21, will return to the Ciudad Delgado courtroom, after being accused of inducing an abortion and convicted of aggravated murder when she was a teenager. She pled not guilty to these charges when the retrial began last month.

Continued: https://pix11.com/2019/08/15/retrial-for-teenage-rape-victim-accused-of-inducing-an-abortion-and-convicted-of-aggravated-murder-resumes/


Salvadoran accused of abortion faces retrial, hefty sentence

Salvadoran accused of abortion faces retrial, hefty sentence

By Marcos Aleman, The Associated Press
July 16, 2019

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — A young woman who gave birth to a baby in an outhouse toilet in El Salvador was back in court Monday facing a second trial for murder in a case that has drawninternational attention because of the country’s highly restrictive abortion laws.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez, who says she is a rape victim and had no idea she was pregnant, had already served 33 months of her 30-year sentence when the Supreme Court overturned the ruling against her in February and ordered a new trial, with a new judge.

Continued: http://www.canadianinquirer.net/2019/07/16/salvadoran-accused-of-abortion-faces-retrial-hefty-sentence/


El Salvador set to reopen abortion trial of teen rape victim

El Salvador set to reopen abortion trial of teen rape victim

July 10, 2019
By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, July 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A teenage rape victim in El Salvador who was convicted for murdering her child and jailed for nearly three years after a stillbirth will face a retrial next week, her lawyers said on Wednesday.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2017 for aggravated murder by a female judge who ruled the teenager had induced an abortion, which is a crime under any circumstance in the Central American nation.

Continued : https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/el-salvador-set-to-reopen-abortion-trial-of-teen-rape-victim


EL SALVADOR – Appeal to acquit Evelyn Hernandez and annul her 30-year sentence

EL SALVADOR – Appeal to acquit Evelyn Hernandez and annul her 30-year sentence

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Sep 1, 2017

The defence lawyers of Evelyn Hernandez presented an appeal to the court on 28 August to annul the 30-year prison sentence handed down on July 5, acquit her of any crime and order her immediate release.

The appeal is based on the argument that the judge did not take into account that the scientific evidence presented and the testimony of the expert witnesses during the trial did not allow the court to establish her guilt nor to sentence her to 30 years in prison for a murder she did not commit, as explained Bertha Deleon, one of her lawyers and a human rights defender.

SOURCE: Las 17, 28 August 2017 ; PHOTO
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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/el-salvador-appeal-to-acquit-evelyn-hernandez-and-annul-her-30-year-sentence/


El Salvador lawyers fight to free raped teenager jailed for abortion

El Salvador lawyers fight to free raped teenager jailed for abortion

Anastasia Moloney
July 14, 2017

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Lawyers in El Salvador representing a teenager who they say suffered a stillbirth but was wrongly imprisoned for murdering her child say they will appeal the decision this month in a case that puts the spotlight on the country's strict abortion ban.

Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez, 19, was handed a 30-year prison sentence earlier this month for aggravated murder by a female judge who ruled the teenager had induced an abortion, which is a crime in the Central American nation.

Continued at source: Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-el-salvador-women-abortion-idUSKBN19Z1VA


El Salvador Activists: ‘We’re Going To Fight’ For Hernandez

El Salvador Activists: 'We're Going To Fight' For Hernandez

Published 13 July 2017

Abortion is illegal in the country under any circumstances, even in cases of rape.

Activists in El Salvador say they won’t stop fighting for Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz, a teenage rape victim who has been sentenced to 30 years for murder after she reportedly had a stillbirth.

"That is an injustice and we're going to fight. We're going to appeal the case and also we are going to fight until the end," Sara Garcia, member of the Colectiva Feminista and Citizens Association for the Decriminalization of Abortion in El Salvador, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview.

Continued at source: Telesur TV: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/El-Salvador-Activists-Were-Going-To-Fight-For-Hernandez-20170713-0022.html