A judge in
El Salvador — where abortion is illegal in all circumstances — has sent a
19-year-old rape survivor to 30 years in jail because her baby was stillborn,
on the
grounds that her failure to get prenatal care amounted to homicide.
High
schooler Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz, 18 at the time of childbirth,
reportedly gave birth in a bathroom last April after a bout of acute pain in
her stomach and back. She hadn’t realized that she was in the third trimester
of a pregnancy, the Guardianreports.
Hernandez
had reportedly been raped repeatedly for months prior in a forced sexual
relationship. She didn’t report the rapes out of fear, but the hospital that
received her did report the stillbirth to authorities, says Amnesty
International.
Medical
experts could not determine if the fetal death happened before or after
delivery, according to the Guardian. The judge hearing the case reportedly
accepted prosecutors’ theory that Hernandez didn’t seek prenatal care because
she didn’t want the baby, and further suggested her mother might also be
criminally responsible at sentencing.
“El
Salvador’s anti-abortion law is causing nothing but pain and suffering to
countless women and girls and their families,” Amnesty’s Americas director
Erika Guevara-Rosas said in a statement.
The Central
American nation has imposed a blanket ban on abortion since 1998. According to
Amnesty, women who experience complications during their pregnancies —
including miscarriages — have been convicted on charges of aggravated murder,
and imprisoned for up to 40 years.
“The total
ban on abortion in El Salvador violates women’s rights to life, health,
privacy, due process and freedom from discrimination, violence and torture and
other ill-treatment,” Guevara-Rosas said, calling for the law to be repealed.
This article
was originally published on TIME.com
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