These Laws Are Making Miscarriage More Traumatic in America

April 27, 2022
By Jessica Grose

In December, I wrote a newsletter with the headline, “Overturning Roe Will Make Miscarriage Care Worse.” I pointed out that because the options that doctors have to end a miscarriage that doesn’t happen on its own — medication or surgery — are the same ones involved in an abortion, outlawing abortion would have a chilling effect on medical providers, as evidenced by cases in countries such as Malta and Poland where abortion is severely restricted.

Doctors wind up being afraid to conduct any procedure that may be misconstrued as an illegal abortion, even when they’re treating patients who miscarry. Women can then wind up with little choice about how their miscarriages end, sometimes simply having to wait to miscarry “naturally,” which may take weeks and risk their health in the process.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/27/opinion/abortion-laws-miscarriage.html


UN Calls on El Salvador to Stop Jailing Women for Abortion

UN Calls on El Salvador to Stop Jailing Women for Abortion
November 17, 2017

SAN SALVADOR —
El Salvador should apply a moratorium on laws that punish women with harsh jail terms for having an abortion while it reviews cases of those already incarcerated in the socially conservative Central American country, a top U.N. official said Friday.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement he spent part of his two-day trip meeting with women imprisoned for the crime of "aggravated homicide" due to what he described as obstetric emergencies.

Continued at source: https://www.voanews.com/a/un-calls-on-el-salvador-to-stop-jailing-women-for-abortion-/4122213.html


El Salvador: What women’s lives are like when abortion is a crime

What women's lives are like when abortion is a crime

By Alice Driver
Thu October 5, 2017

Story highlights
Alice Driver: Passage of a recent bill in the House of Representatives shows that for some Republicans, criminalizing abortion is a priority. If Americans want to know what women's lives are like in a country where abortion is a crime, they should listen to women in El Salvador, she writes

(CNN)During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump famously said that there should be "some form of punishment" for abortion. Although he later tried to walk these remarks back, he and his mostly male fellow Republicans have quietly been making headway since he took office on an agenda to make sure women have as few options as possible for reproductive choice and education, including limited access to birth control and the preventative care offered by Planned Parenthood.

Continued at source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/05/opinions/united-states-el-salvador-abortion-prison-driver-opinion/index.html


El Salvador: What It’s Like To Be The World’s First Abortion Refugee

What It's Like To Be The World's First Abortion Refugee

In 2011, María Teresa Rivera was sentenced to 40 years in prison for 'aggravated homicide' following a miscarriage in El Salvador. Five years later, free and living in Sweden, she finally speaks out about the horrific ordeals women across her home country are facing when it comes to abortion, homicide and the law.

By Katie O'Malley
Aug 1, 2017

The pain, both physical and psychological, of going through a miscarriage, is an experience no-one should have to endure.

However, little did 33-year-old María Teresa Rivera know that the death of her embryo would also be compounded by the loss of her freedom.

Continued at source: Elle: http://www.elleuk.com/life-and-culture/culture/longform/a37441/first-abortion-refugee-maria-teresa-rivera-el-salvador/


MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE: Young Salvadoran woman sentenced to 30 years for miscarriage

MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE: Young Salvadoran woman sentenced to 30 years for miscarriage

July 7, 2017

On 27 June we reported in the Campaign newsletter that a young girl, Evelyn Beatriz, at the age of 18, was the victim of rape in her community and became pregnant without realising it. She miscarried the pregnancy, without even having realised she was pregnant. When she went to the hospital for care, it was treated as suspicious and she was taken away to prison and charged. She was so frightened by everything that happened to her that she did not report the rape to anyone.

The case was heard yesterday, on 5 July. Her defence called for the case to be dismissed because she was innocent of any wrongdoing and there was no evidence that she had killed the baby. However, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison for “aggravated homicide” by the Tribunal de Sentencia de Cojutepeque.

Her defence team, Bertha María Deleón and Dennis Muñoz, expressed their disagreement with the ruling. They described it as “lacking technical arguments and based on prejudice”. They said “it was determined without taking into account that two expert witnesses, one in charge of the autopsy and the other in charge of the pathology study, pointed out that they had found the presence of meconium in the bronchia of the baby and this could have caused its death”. They also mentioned an irregularity that existed in the process, to do with contamination of the scene – that the police had washed the baby before it was examined by the Medecina Legal (Legal Medicine).

They said they will appeal the ruling and take it up to the Supreme Court of El Salvador if necessary.

This is only one of many other cases of women in El Salvador, mostly young and very poor, who have been sent to prison on such charges with little or no evidence. All over Latin America, women’s movement groups are condemning the courts whose judgements in El Salvador create an injustice through the lifelong sentences they are imposing on innocent young women like Evelyn Beatriz without just cause.

This court judgement is a gross violation of justice and of the human rights of all women who have miscarriages and stillbirths, for which they should never be held responsible in any form, and particularly not criminally responsible. We call on the government of El Salvador to pass legislation that will prevent women being sent to prison in this manner. We also call on them to decriminalize abortion, because it is the criminal law on abortion that the police and judges are confusing here and as a result are criminalizing any delivery of a pregnancy that does not result in a live birth. Lastly, we urge the human rights system in Latin America to offer to the government of El Salvador to provide the police and judges with training in these medical issues if they are going to continue to be forced to hear cases in which they have no medical expertise or background. This trial, like others before it, shows that the realities of women’s reproductive health matters, whether miscarriages, stillbirths or induced abortions, do not belong in a criminal court.

We are ready to organise international solidarity at the request of the movement in El Salvador.

SOURCES: Reportaje en español: http://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/370385/joven-condenada-a-30-anos-por-homicidio/, por Stanley Luna, 5 July 2017

For an in-depth analysis of all the cases in El Salvador like this one, see: Pregnancy and the 40-Year prison sentence: How “abortion Is murder” became institutionalized in the Salvadoran judicial system, by Jocelyn Viterna and José Santos Guardado Bautista, Health and Human Rights, June 2017, at: https://cdn2.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2017/06/Viterna.pdf

For responses on Twitter from the women’s groups in El Salvador who have supported Evelyn Beatriz and all the women in prison like her, see: https://twitter.com/Unaflorporlas17/status/882723644660756480 and https://twitter.com/AbortoPORlaVIDA

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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/miscarriage-of-justice-young-salvadoran-woman-sentenced-to-30-years-for-miscarriage/


El Salvador jails raped teenager for 30 years under murder laws after she said she suffered miscarriage

El Salvador jails raped teenager for 30 years under murder laws after she said she suffered miscarriage

Lawyers for the 19-year-old said she did not know she was pregnant

Andrew Buncombe, New York
Friday 7 July 2017

A teenager has been jailed for 30 years after suffering what her lawyers said was a miscarriage, after she was raped a year ago.

A court in El Salvador, a country that has perhaps the world’s most strict laws on reproductive rights, found that Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz, 19, had killed her baby by throwing it into a latrine pit after she gave birth. It convicted her of aggravated homicide.

Continued at source: The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world-0/el-salvador-abortion-case-raped-woman-jailed-miscarriage-evelyn-beatriz-hern-ndez-cruz-prison-a7827891.html


El Salvador Appeal court to decide whether to release Evelyn Beatriz, one of “Las 17”

Appeal court to decide whether to release Evelyn Beatriz, one of “Las 17”

June 27, 2017
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

“Las 17” are women in prison in El Salvador who had a miscarriage or a stillbirth but were sent to prison for illegal abortion and even for aggravated homicide in trials where the evidence base was very compromised. In a press release on 23 June, the Agrupacion de Ciudadana reported that the appeal against a sentence of aggravated homicide by one of the women, Evelyn Beatriz, would be heard in the Central Court of Cojutepeque on 23 June.
Evelyn, we are with you; Freedom for Evelyn, Stop criminalising women – outside the court, 26 June

The case was opened that day but originally deferred until 26 June. The hearing will now continue on 5 July.

At the age of 18, Evelyn Beatriz had a miscarriage, but she had not even realised that she was pregnant. When she went to the hospital for care, it was reported as suspicious and she taken to prison and charged. She had fallen pregnant as a result of rape in the community where she was living with her family. She was so frightened by everything that happened that she did not report the rape to anyone.

She is now supported by the many groups in the country involved in trying to get women released from prison who, like her, have not committed any crime at all.

SOURCE/PHOTOS: Las 17 El Salvador, 23 June 2017 ; 26 June 2017

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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/appeal-court-to-decide-whether-to-release-evelyn-beatriz-one-of-las-17/


El Salvador abortion ban under international scrutiny from human rights organization

El Salvador abortion ban under international scrutiny from human rights organization

By Carter Sherman on Apr 20, 2017

In 2008, a pregnant, hemorrhaging woman staggered into a hospital in El Salvador seeking emergency care. The woman, a 33-year-old mother of two, had suffered an obstetric injury that led her to lose the fetus. But because her doctors suspected she had undergone an abortion, they immediately called the police.

The woman was charged with aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison, where she later died. But a petition on her behalf was admitted Wednesday by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an international human rights organization, because according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, she was falsely convicted. The woman, who the Center gave the pseudonym “Manuela,” is also one of thousands of women negatively affected by El Salvador’s anti-abortion laws, which are among the strictest in the world.

Continued at link: Vice: https://news.vice.com/story/el-salvador-abortion-ban-under-international-scrutiny-from-human-rights-organization


Uruguay Solidarity Request: Please sign statement calling for release of young woman in prison for miscarriage

Uruguay Solidarity Request

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion, April 7, 2017

Statement: A court has put a young woman in prison for miscarriage

by Mujer y Salud en Uruguay (MYSU), 4 April 2017
PLEASE SIGN THIS STATEMENT CALLING FOR HER RELEASE

A young woman has this week been sentenced to a term in prison for homicide in the city of Rivera in Uruguay. She gave birth in the bathroom of her house unaware that she was even pregnant. She was accused of manslaughter, which the judge, Darwin Rampoldi, used to sentence her for having “aborted” the pregnancy.

This is the second time this year that the Uruguayan justice system has been responsible for a blatant injustice, void of any gender perspective. The circumstances, as narrated in the judgment, are masterfully misogynistic.

Before she was even taken to court, however, the young woman had been judged and condemned by the health professionals who attended her in the Public Hospital. The initial diagnosis was of “abortion” followed by a series of gynaecological examinations that determined that she had given birth. She was then taken to the maternity ward, and only six hours after admission, a doctor thought to ask: “Where is the baby?”.

In the trial, there were testimonies from doctors, neighbours and relatives. In her own words, the young woman told the court that she had felt a strong pain, but had had no idea that she was pregnant. She told her partner that she thought it could be ovarian pain, but that she wasn’t going to go to the doctor because “they will laugh at me”.

This is not the first time that a woman has been criminally prosecuted in Uruguay under these circumstances. Yet no State institution has intervened to prevent and address these unfortunate situations. Instead, the Penal Code is invoked, and women are put on trial and sent to jail without justification.
We call on the Judiciary to ensure that its members receive regular training in human rights issues as well as greater awareness of the use of legal processes so as to ensure gender justice. We also call on the Judiciary to monitor the performance of judges in invoking the criminal law in such cases. We believe an analysis of such judgments would provide an account of the extent of gender bias and prejudice in judicial rulings, and expose the extent to which they reinforce gender stereotypes and biased social values – such as those which assume that a woman who has an unexpected pregnancy and gives birth in very precarious conditions must have murdered a baby.

We also denounce the attitude and intervention of those health professionals who, instead of attending to a woman who found herself in this situation, mistreated, belittled and judged her. Health professionals are neither judges nor police officers; their role is not to condemn but to ensure the highest quality of care for the patient who requires it, regardless of her socioeconomic class and educational level, let alone her “motives”.

We demand the immediate release of this young woman and the effective intervention of all the State institutions that are involved, to ensure her release.

TO SIGN THIS STATEMENT, PLEASE SEND YOUR GROUP/NAME, POSITION, CITY, COUNTRY, TO: mysu@mysu.org.uy
COMUNICADO EN ESPAÑOL: http://www.mysu.org.uy/multimedia/noticia/comunicado-ante-procesamiento-con-prision-de-mujer-en-rivera/ ;

Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion:
http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/uruguay-solidarity-request/


Argentina: “Belén” acquitted: Tucumán Provincial Supreme Court overturns sentence for aggravated homicid

STOP PRESS: ARGENTINA “Belén” acquitted: Tucumán Provincial Supreme Court overturns sentence for aggravated homicide
by Safe Abortion
March 31, 2017

In 2014, “Belén”, a 27-year-old woman from the province of Tucumán went to her local hospital with a serious vaginal haemorrhage. The duty doctor diagnosed a spontaneous miscarriage, but “Belén” was accused of having disposed of the fetus in a hospital washroom. She was tried and sentenced to eight years in jail for aggravated homicide in a trial riddled with irregularities. She spent more than two years in prison until August 2016, when the Tucumán Supreme Court ordered her release after a long-running, nationwide campaign. Seven months later, the Court has now acquitted her due to the absence of evidence against her.

In overturning the lower court’s decision, the provincial Supreme Court highlighted the importance of patient confidentiality, the rights of women who have undergone an abortion and the right of women to be treated with dignity and not subjected to violence.

Her lawyer, Soledad Deza, told El País, that the ruling will set a precedent that will help to prevent other women from being treated as she was: “This ruling provides justice twice over: for Belén and all other women who do not want to be mothers who have a spontaneous or induced abortion. I believe this ruling will encourage women to use the public health system because they now know they will not be arrested when they leave.” She said Belén is also considering whether to bring legal action against the state for the time she has lost, the violation of her rights, the loss of her freedom and for changing the course of her life.

SOURCE: El País, 28 March 2017 (in English) ; Absuelta una joven argentina que estuvo dos años presa por un aborto (en español) ; PHOTO

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Source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/stop-press-argentina-belen-acquitted-tucuman-provincial-supreme-court-overturns-sentence-for-aggravated-homicide/