The Dark State Of Abortion Rights In El Salvador, And First Signs Of Light

Although the last Salvadorian woman imprisoned on charges linked to abortion was released in December, 11 similar cases are currently pending in the country. Human rights activists acknowledge the progress made, and the work that remains to be done to overturn strict anti-abortion laws.

Mariana Escobar Bernoske
March 09, 2024

BOGOTÁ — In December 2023, Lilian was the last Salvadoran woman to regain her freedom after spending seven years in prison for an obstetric emergency. In 2015, the courts found her guilty of "murdering" her unborn baby by planning an abortion, when in fact, a tear in her uterus had caused the death. Medics had to give her three blood transfusions to stabilize her.

El Salvador is one of Latin America's most restrictive states in terms of women's sexual and reproductive rights. Abortion is banned as the state considers persons to exist from the moment of conception, contrary to the advice of international human rights groups. Under this strict ban, women who have had pregnancy complications, miscarriages or prenatal deaths to be charged with premeditating abortion.

Continued: https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/abortion-righs-el-salvador

El Salvador: Evelyn Hernández cleared over baby’s death

El Salvador: Evelyn Hernández cleared over baby's death

20 August 2019

A 21-year-old woman in El Salvador whose baby was found dead in the toilet where she gave birth has been cleared of murder during a retrial.

Evelyn Hernández had always maintained she was innocent, saying that she did not know she was pregnant and lost consciousness during the birth.

Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of 40 years.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49368632

Salvadoran rape victim jailed for stillbirth not guilty of murder

Salvadoran rape victim jailed for stillbirth not guilty of murder
Evelyn Hernandez, who was previously given 30 years for suspected abortion, found not guilty of homicide in retrial.

by Anna-Cat Brigida
August 19, 2019

El Salvador rape survivor Evelyn Hernandez was found not guilty of charges of aggravated homicide by a Salvadoran court Monday in a case that was the latest win for feminist activists fighting to end the criminalisation of women suspected of having abortions.

Prosecutors asked for a 40-year sentence during the retrial of 21-year-old Hernandez, who was the latest woman to go to trial for an abortion-related crime in El Salvador, a country that enforces its total abortion ban with a harshness unseen in nearly every other country.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/salvadoran-rape-victim-jailed-stillbirth-guilty-murder-190819185642576.html

19.08.2019

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30-year jail sentence for stillbirth

Bertha de León

Evelyn Hernández

jailing women for stillbirth

Nayib Bukele

Paula Avila-Guillen

women imprisoned for stillbirth

Women's Equality Center

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/

In anti-abortion El Salvador, woman faces second homicide trial after baby stillborn

In anti-abortion El Salvador, woman faces second homicide trial after baby stillborn

Nelson Renteria, Reuters
August 1, 2019

SAN SALVADOR — Salvadoran maid Evelyn Hernandez says she did not realize she was pregnant when as an 18-year-old she delivered a stillborn son after a three-day stomach ache. A court in the Central American country, which bans abortion under all circumstances, ruled it aggravated homicide.

Prosecutors claimed that she had induced an abortion, and Hernandez was sentenced to 30 years. After she served nearly three years, the Supreme Court in February ordered her released and re-tried because the original judge’s decision was based on prejudice and insufficient evidence.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/in-anti-abortion-el-salvador-woman-faces-second-homicide-trial-after-baby-stillborn

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/

16.07.2019

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Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion in El Salvador

Elizabeth Deras

Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez

jailing women for stillbirth

Morena Herrera

Nayib Bukele

prosecuting pregnant women

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

Is Canadian government cash helping to back El Salvador’s harsh abortion law?

Is Canadian government cash helping to back El Salvador's harsh abortion law?
Federal funding supports prosecutors enforcing what some have called the most draconian abortion law anywhere

Evan Dyer · CBC News
Posted: May 30, 2019

In the end, Imelda Cortez's story was too much even for El Salvador's famously harsh courts. Her case was making news around the world, and DNA had confirmed that the newborn she was accused of attempting to murder was the product of rape by a 70-year-old stepfather who'd abused her throughout her childhood.

Cortez, 20, the daughter of a poor rural family, insisted she didn't know she was pregnant until she entered an outhouse and a child came out.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/el-salvador-abortion-trudeau-ottawa-1.5153265

USA – A Woman’s Rights

More and more laws are treating a fetus as a person, and a woman as less of one, as states charge pregnant women with crimes...

Opinion
A Woman’s Rights
By The Editorial Board
Photographs by Damon Winter

DEC. 28, 2018

You might be surprised to learn that in the United States a woman coping with the heartbreak of losing her pregnancy might also find herself facing jail time. Say she got in a car accident in New York or gave birth to a stillborn in Indiana: In such cases, women have been charged with manslaughter.

In fact, a fetus need not die for the state to charge a pregnant woman with a crime. Women who fell down the stairs, who ate a poppy seed bagel and failed a drug test or who took legal drugs during pregnancy — drugs prescribed by their doctors — all have been accused of endangering their children.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/12/28/opinion/pregnancy-women-pro-life-abortion.html

Women serving decades-long prison terms for abortion in El Salvador hope change is coming

Women serving decades-long prison terms for abortion in El Salvador hope change is coming

By Anna-Catherine Brigida
September 27, 2018

SAN SALVADOR — Alba Lorena Rodríguez was five months pregnant when she started to feel sharp pains in her stomach while at home in December 2009. She fainted. When she awoke, she says, she realized she had lost her baby.

Rodríguez, now 39, says she had a miscarriage. But the state accused her of killing the fetus, and she was convicted of aggravated homicide in a suspected abortion case. She denies having an abortion and says she mourned her miscarriage.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/women-serving-decades-long-prison-terms-for-abortion-in-el-salvador-hope-change-is-coming/2018/09/26/0048119e-a62c-11e8-ad6f-080770dcddc2_story.html?utm_term=.24ab690d1e6b&wpisrc=nl_todayworld&wpmm=1