19-year-old rape victim bags 30 years jail sentence for stillbirth under El Salvador’s strict abortion law

For having a stillbirth due to complications during pregnancy, a 19-year-old rape victim, Hernandez Cruz, has been sentenced to 30 year...

For having a stillbirth due to complications during pregnancy, a 19-year-old rape victim, Hernandez Cruz, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in El Salvador.
Hernandez Cruz, who Local rights groups alleged was raped months before going into labour, but had not told police out of fear, was convicted of “aggravated homicide” on Wednesday under what Amnesty International called El Salvador’s “retrograde anti-abortion law”, even though she didn’t know she was pregnant when she suffered severe abdominal pain and fainted in her bathroom in April 2016.

Her case was taken to court, after a Hospital staff reported her to officials and she was charged after the body of the feotus was found in a toilet. Hernandez Cruz was convicted on grounds that she did not get prenatal care.

Evelyn was sentenced 30 yrs for an obstetric emergency today. This is Justice in #ElSalvador When will it end? #Las17 pic.twitter.com/AK4xLhfJkC
Prosecutors also argued that the baby may have died after birth. El Salvador is one of five countries where abortion is criminalised in all cases.

According to Aljazeera, under the country’s law which was implemented in 1998, women can be charged for murder and other related charges even when a pregnancy is the result of rape, incest or when the life or health of the pregnant woman or girl is at risk.

women have been given sentences of up to 40 years if a judge determines “homicide” was committed. Politics in El Salvador are highly influenced by the Catholic Church.
“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 on Thursday.

“It goes against human rights and it has no place in the country or anywhere.” Human Rights Watch has also called the law a risk to “women’s life and health”.