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WORLD NEWS Saturday 11 June 2022
Salvadoran women jailed for abortion warn U.S. of total ban

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and the AP, saying it "leads us to
JESSIE WARDARSKI a total disaster."
Associated Press Anti-abortion activists say
SAN SALVADOR, El Salva- that women sharing their
dor (AP) — Teodora del stories did kill their babies
Carmen Vásquez was nine and that their arguments
months pregnant when are led by abortion-rights
she felt extreme pain in nonprofits trying to ease
her back. She called 911 the law. Local anti-abortion
seven times before fainting groups did not respond to
in a bathroom in a pool of interview requests or de-
blood. clined to talk to the AP.
The nightmare that came El Salvador's health minister
next is common in El Sal- declined to comment via a
vador, a heavily Catholic spokesperson for the presi-
country where abortion is dency, who also said no
banned under all circum- other government officials
stances and women who would be available for in-
suffer miscarriages and still- terviews.
births risk being accused of With Roe v. Wade in jeop-
killing their babies and sen- ardy, Latin American abor-
tenced to prison. tion rights activists who
When Vásquez regained once looked to the U.S. as
consciousness, officers Mariana López sits with her seven-year-old daughter at their home in Ahuachapan, El Salvador, a model have shifted their
drove her in the bed of a on Thursday, May 19, 2022. sights to countries with loos-
pickup truck to a police sta- Associated Press ening restrictions, such as
tion. There she was arrested Colombia and Mexico.
on suspicion of violating El Latin America and Carib- the past two decades, her story and agreed be In one key case, a Salva-
Salvador's abortion law, bean director for the New according to the Citizen photographed on the con- doran woman was arrest-
one of the world's strictest. York-based Center for Re- Group for the Decrimi- dition her full name not be ed in 2008 after losing her
She was later convicted of productive Rights. nalization of Abortion. At disclosed out of concerns pregnancy. Her two young
aggravated homicide and "These states are going to least 65 imprisoned women over privacy, possible repri- sons were left in the care
sentenced to 30 years in live similar situations that have been released with sals and societal stigma. of their grandparents and
prison. women are living in El Sal- the help of the organiza- Today Karen tries to make the mother, who in court
"This is the reality that we vador," she said. tion and its allies. up for lost time with her son. proceedings was identified
have lived," said Vásquez, Some anti-abortion lead- "Everywhere in the world it's She retains her Catholic only as Manuela, died of
who served more than 10 ers in the U.S. oppose pros- understood that there are faith but is disenchanted cancer in 2010 while serv-
years for what she main- ecuting women who have pregnancy losses for natu- with some of the church's ing a 30-year sentence.
tains was a stillbirth. "Any abortions, but others dis- ral reasons. ... Here, that's positions, including its op- "Death," said Jesús, the old-
woman who arrives to jail agree. Louisiana legislators punished," said Morena position to abortion. er son who's now 22. "That's
accused of having an unsuccessfully pushed a bill Herrera, the nonprofit's di- "If it was up to them, we what the state of El Salva-
abortion is seen as the most this year that would have rector. shouldn't have been freed," dor caused when it sen-
evil, heartless being." allowed such prosecutions, Prosecution and punish- Karen said. tenced my mom — it killed
"From the moment we get and some U.S. clergy favor ment overwhelmingly fall The Catholic Church and her and sentenced her chil-
pregnant, we become in- classifying the procedure on poor, young women the growing number of dren to a bad life."
cubators," said Vásquez, as homicide. who lack sufficient access evangelical churches have Jesús found some clo-
whose sentence was com- Women used to be able to to medical services and vast influence in the coun- sure last November when
muted in 2018. "We lose our seek abortions in cases of cannot afford to travel try. theInter-American Court
rights." risk to their life, severe fetal abroad for an abortion or In El Salvador's congress, of Human Rights ruledthat
Abortion rights activists say malformations incompat- pay for a good legal de- lawmaker Guillermo Gal- El Salvador had violated
the law has led to human ible with life, or rape in El fense. legos -- whose office is Manuela's rights.
rights violations and should Salvador, a small Central One woman, Karen, was adorned with Catholic im- The court found that Manu-
serve as a cautionary tale American country of 6.5 21 and pregnant when agery -- said allowing abor- ela's lost pregnancy was
for the United States, where million people. she fainted. She woke up tion would countermand due to a preeclampsia
more than 20 states are But that ended in the late handcuffed to a gurney deeply held beliefs among complication. It ordered
expected to ban abortion 1990s with a law cham- and lost the pregnancy. most Salvadorans. the government to pay
if the Supreme Court soon pioned by anti-abortion She received an aggravat- "There is no valid reason damages to her sons.
overturns the landmark activists, conservative law- ed homicide conviction in why abortion can be de- Vásquez also grew up
1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. makers and the Catho- 2015 and a 30-year prison criminalized in our country," poor, helping her parents
Some states may retain ex- lic Church, followed by a sentence. Gallegos said. farm before moving to the
ceptions such as rape or constitutional amendment "They told me that I was The Vatican has long op- capital. She entered prison
incest, but others are likely defining life as starting at a murderer and I was go- posed abortion, and that at 24. After her 2018 re-
to have none save for a conception. ing to pay for what I had hasn't changed under lease, she vowed to fight to
threat to a pregnant wom- El Salvador is not the only done," she said. Pope Francis. free others and launched
an's life. That would mean country in the Western She spent seven years After celebrating a recent a group, Mujeres Libres —
some rape victims may be Hemisphere with a total locked up, drawing Mass in San Salvador, Cardi- Spanish for "free women."
forced to carry unwanted ban but stands out for its strength from her son and nal Gregorio Rosa Chávez "It's really important to try
pregnancies to term and aggressive prosecutions. belief in her innocence and praised Francis' views and to change El Salvador,"
obstetric emergencies Overall, El Salvador has was released in December. echoed his theme of abor- Vásquez said, "so our his-
could be mistaken for in- prosecuted at least 181 Like some other women tion as a violent act. tory doesn't get repeated
tentional abortions, said women who experienced interviewed by The Associ- "We live in a culture of elsewhere and by future
Catalina Martínez Coral, obstetric emergencies in ated Press, Karen shared death," the cardinal told generations."q