USA – Anti-abortion politicians never intended to support women and children

BY KELLY BADEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
June 8, 2023

It’s been one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and conservative states have had plenty of time to enact the policies to support women, children and families that they promised to prioritize once they reached their goal of banning abortion.

Immediately following the June 24, 2022, decision, politicians assured us that their post-Roe plans included supporting women and children. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said “Being pro-life means being pro-mothers, pro-babies, and pro-healthy futures,” while Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he was “enthusiastically prepared to take on the challenges ahead and to take every step necessary to support mothers and children.” The Tennessee House Republican Caucus declared their “unwavering commitment to fight for families.”

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/4038665-anti-abortion-politicians-never-intended-to-support-women-and-children/

Argentina – She had a miscarriage. Now she’s facing life in prison

By Natalie Alcoba
December 12, 2022

One morning in December 2020, La China* was overcome with abdominal cramps. She has polycystic ovary syndrome and has often suffered severe pain and irregular, heavy periods. The condition was a reason why she hadn’t realised she was pregnant until after eight months with her first child, and until after six months with the second.

That morning, in intense pain, the 43-year-old Venezuelan, who lives in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, took some painkillers and went to bed. But she began bleeding profusely. What happened next is disputed.

Continued: https://bhekisisa.org/features/2022-12-12-she-had-a-miscarriage-now-shes-facing-life-in-prison/

El Salvador gives woman accused of abortion 30 years prison

A court in El Salvador has sentenced a woman who suffered an obstetric emergency that ended her pregnancy to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide

By The Associated Press
10 May 2022

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador -- A court in El Salvador has sentenced a woman who suffered an obstetric emergency that ended her pregnancy to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide, according to a nongovernmental organization assisting in her defense.

The Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion said Tuesday in a statement that a woman they identified only as “Esme” was sentenced Monday. The woman had already been in pre-trial detention for two years following her arrest when she sought medical care in a public hospital.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/el-salvador-woman-accused-abortion-30-years-prison-84630286

10.05.2022

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Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion

Esme in El Salvador

obstetric emergencies

Killed by abortion laws: five women whose stories we must never forget

As the US supreme court threatens to undo 49 years of access to safe and legal terminations, five women who died because of bans on abortion stand as warnings of what is at stake globally

Joe Parkin Daniels, Sarah Johnson, Weronika Strzyżyńska, Kaamil Ahmed and Mercy Kahenda
Sat 7 May 2022

[Stories about:]
Savita Halappanavar, Ireland
Olga Reyes, Nicaragua
‘Izabela’, Poland
‘Manuela’, El Salvador
‘Mildred’, Kenya

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/07/killed-by-abortion-laws-five-women-whose-stories-we-must-never-forget

El Salvador woman punished under strict abortion law freed after 10 years

‘Elsy’ was sentenced to 30 years for aggravated homicide over miscarriage and is fifth such woman to be released since December

AP in San Salvador
Wed 9 Feb 2022

El Salvador has released another woman imprisoned for aggravated homicide who after suffering an obstetric emergency was accused of aborting her pregnancy in a country where abortion under any circumstances is banned.

The woman, who activists helping her identified only as Elsy, had served more than a decade of a 30-year sentence. She was the fifth woman released before completion of her sentence since late December of last year.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/09/el-salvador-woman-freed-abortion-law-10-years

09.02.2022

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aggravated homicide

Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion

imprisoning women for miscarriage

jailing women for miscarriage

Manuela

Morena Herrera

obstetric emergencies

El Salvador violated rights of woman who died in prison while serving 30-year abortion sentence, international court finds

By Maite Fernández Simon
Dec 1, 2021

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that El Salvador violated the rights of a woman who died in prison while serving a 30-year sentence on an abortion conviction. The court mandated that El Salvador pay damages to the woman’s family and establish protocols to guarantee health care in obstetric emergencies like the one that led to her imprisonment.

El Salvador is one of the few countries in Latin America that penalizes abortion under any circumstance. This week’s ruling is the first time an international court has weighed in on the impact of the country’s restrictions.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/01/el-salvador-abortion-rights-manuela/

01.12.2021

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Catalina Martínez Coral

Center for Reproductive Rights

Colectiva Feminista

Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Manuela

obstetric emergencies

International court could press El Salvador to change abortion ban

By JULIA BARAJAS, STAFF WRITER
APRIL 17, 2021

About seven months into her pregnancy, Manuela passed out at her family home in a rural part of Morozán in northeast El Salvador.

Her frightened relatives, who had no car, carried her in a hammock to a hospital many miles away. There, a physician asked the groggy woman, who was hemorrhaging and had lumps on her neck, for her husband. He’d migrated to the U.S., she said.

Continued:
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-04-17/el-salvador-abortion-ban-international-court

El Salvador – A woman lost her pregnancy but was jailed for abortion. She later died.

El Salvador is committing "gender violence" by criminalizing women with obstetric emergencies, human rights groups argued before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

March 17, 2021 – NBC News

By Albinson Linares, Noticias Telemundo and
Eulimar Núñez

Manuela, a mother of two in rural El Salvador, couldn't even walk to the
hospital.

In February 2008, her relatives had to wrap her in a hammock and transport her
as best they could to the health center two hours away, after a pregnant
Manuela suffered severe pelvic pain, started hemorrhaging, expelled her fetus
and passed out.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/woman-lost-pregnancy-was-jailed-abortion-later-died-rcna440

El Salvador’s abortion ban jails women for miscarriages and stillbirths – now one woman’s family seeks international justice

Juliet S. Sorensen, Alexandra Tarzikhan, Meredith Heim
March 15, 2021

(THE CONVERSATION) El Salvador outlaws abortion completely, even in circumstances of rape or incest, with penalties ranging from two to 50 years. The abortion ban is so broadly enforced that even women who suffer miscarriages and stillbirths can be prosecuted for murder.

Now an international court will decide for the first time whether these laws violate the human rights of Salvadoran women.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/el-salvadors-abortion-ban-jails-women-for-miscarriages-and-stillbirths-now-one-womans-family-seeks-international-justice-156484

The abortion cases that could force El Salvador to loosen its ban

Appeal of Salvadoran woman’s 30-year sentence for suspected abortion comes amid ‘green wave’ of decriminalisation in Latin America.

By Anna-Cat Brigida, Al Jazeera
14 Mar 2021

San Salvador, El Salvador – Lawyers are fighting for the release of one of the dozens of women imprisoned for abortion-related crimes in El Salvador in a case that could signal if the country will be swept up by the region’s “green wave” of abortion decriminalisation.

Sara, a Salvadoran woman identified only by her first name to protect her identity, had a miscarriage in 2012 at the age of 22 when she slipped and fell washing laundry. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide but has maintained her innocence.

Continued: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/14/the-abortion-cases-that-could-force-el-salvador-to-loosen-its-ban