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

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

AUGUST 1, 2019 / 4:04 PM / UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO

Nelson Renteria
4 MIN READ

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - 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.

Now 21, Hernandez faces retrial this month in a case that has thrown a spotlight on the predominantly Roman Catholic country’s prosecution of women for aggravated homicide when their babies are stillborn or die during home deliveries.

Some 147 women were sentenced up to 40 years in prison in such cases between 2000 and 2014, according to the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion.

“I am innocent,” Hernandez said at the start of her new trial on July 15. The case has been in recess since then due to the illness of a witness and resumes on Aug. 15.


Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-el-salvador-abortion/in-anti-abortion-el-salvador-woman-faces-second-homicide-trial-after-baby-stillborn-idUSKCN1UR5Q1?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29&&rpc=401

[progree]

1. K&R for visibility. The Nation had a big cover story, May 7 on Ecuador -- same thing

Ecuador’s Crackdown on Abortion Is Putting Women in Jail, May 7, 2019

For decades, abortion was considered a private matter. Now, a Nation investigation shows, women who terminate—or lose—pregnancies are facing prosecution and prison time.

https://www.thenation.com/article/ecuador-abortion-miscarriage-prosecution/

It's mostly focused on women who had a miscarriage or problematical pregnancy being suspected of inducing (or suspected of attempting to induce) an abortion and prosecuted. And doctors and other medical personal are under a lot of pressure to report anything suspicious to law enforcement. And it didn't use to be like this at all.

EDITED TO ADD - there's this from May 2

Las Comadres Is Fighting to Make Abortion Safe in Ecuador—Even While It’s Illegal, May 2, 2019

The group represents a new tactic in abortion-rights activism, which skirts legal restrictions and the often risky surgical procedures that defined clandestine abortions in the past.

https://www.thenation.com/article/abortion-activism-prosecutions-ecuador/

[Judi Lynn]

2. Thanks for the links to the Nation articles. Absolutely worth reading. n/t

[SpankMe]

3. This is coming to America, I fear. n/t