Salvador: release of a woman imprisoned on suspicion of abortion


Feminist associations celebrated Tuesday, January 18 in El Salvador the release, after nine years of imprisonment, of a young woman who had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for suspicion of abortion. “We will continue to fight and insist that the women who are still imprisoned regain their freedom”, Morena Herrera, director of the Citizen Association for the Decriminalization of Abortion (ACDATEE), told AFP.

Kenia is the fourth woman to be released from prison since December, following Karen, Kathy and Evelyn, who were all serving sentences for aggravated homicide after suffering obstetrical emergencies that led to miscarriages. “Every time a woman is released from prison, we rejoice because it is absolutely unfair that she has been criminalized for an obstetric emergency”, added Morena Herrera. Kenya was released from prison on Monday after benefiting from a “early release”, granted by a judge at the request of ACDATEE.

The Salvadoran penal code has since 1998 prohibited abortion in all circumstances, even in the event of danger to the health of the mother or the child, and provides for penalties of up to eight years in prison. However, prosecutions are generally initiated for “aggravated homicide”, punishable by up to 50 years in prison.

According to the feminist organization Agrupación Ciudadana, the young woman became pregnant at 17 after a sexual assault. She then suffered from a “obstetric emergency” in a barn next to the house where she lived. “Seeing her bleeding out, (his father) called the emergency number for help. Instead of helping Kenia during her medical emergency, Salvadoran police arrested her and charged her with aggravated homicide., the organization said in a statement.

The liberation of the young woman “is a hope in the struggle” for “the sexual and reproductive rights of poor women in El Salvador” who are denounced when they arrive at public hospitals, she added. Under the Central American country’s strict anti-abortion laws, ten women are still in prison, and two are still on trial.



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