Protesters in San Salvador, on December 13, 2017, demand that the government of El Salvador release female prisoners who are serving a 30-year sentence for having an abortion.
Salvador Melendez / AP
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Salvador Melendez / AP
Protesters in San Salvador, on December 13, 2017, demand that the government of El Salvador release female prisoners who are serving a 30-year sentence for having an abortion.
Salvador Melendez / AP
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – The government of President Nayib Bukele has freed three Salvadoran women sentenced to 30 years in prison under the country’s strict anti-abortion laws after suffering an obstetric emergency, according to conservation groups. abortion rights.
Morena Herrera of the Citizens Group on Abortion said late Friday that the group was told a woman would be released by order of the president, but when they arrived at the prison to greet her, three who was released.
“We showed up at the prison in Zacatecoluca and Karen, Kathy and Evelyn left. They are free and in their homes,” Herrera said.
She said she had no further information on the decision, although she noted that petitions are pending by the Supreme Court to commute the women’s sentences.
These three are among at least 17 Salvadoran women’s activists unjustly convicted and jailed following obstetric emergencies and are at the center of a campaign against El Salvador’s absolutist law. against abortion.
Several celebrities – including actors América Ferrera, Milla Jovovich and Kathryn Hahn – asked last week Bukele and El Salvador in general to let women go home to celebrate Christmas.
Paula Avila-Guillén, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Women’s Equality, said: “We are grateful that our petitions are being heard and we are confident that President Bukele will work to achieve freedom for the remaining innocent women.”
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in November ruled that the El Salvador government violated the right of a woman to be identified as Manuela, who was arrested in 2008 on charges of inciting abortion and died in 2010. while incarcerated, leaving behind two children.
El Salvador is among four countries in Latin America that ban abortion under all circumstances, including when the mother’s life is at risk and in cases of rape. The others are Nicaragua, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Murder charges are often brought.
