Salvadoran woman jailed over stillbirth freed after 11 years

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez’s 30-year sentence under country’s total ban on abortions is commuted

Nina Lakhani
Thu 15 Feb 2018 18.59 GMT

A woman sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated murder after having a stillbirth has been freed in El Salvador in a case highlighting the dire consequences of the Central American country’s total ban on abortion.

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, 34, was released on Thursday after serving almost 11 years for a crime she has always vehemently denied. Her sentence was commuted by the supreme court on the grounds that there was insufficient scientific evidence to determine that she had intentionally caused the stillbirth, but her conviction was not overturned.

Vásquez is the 16th woman to be freed as a result of appeals and campaigns by reproductive rights groups and lawyers working under hostile conditions perpetuated by the conservative media and powerful anti-abortion groups. A 17th woman, Mayra Figueroa, who was jailed for 30 years in 2003, will be freed next month.

El Salvador is one of a handful of countries to ban abortion in all circumstances, even if the woman is raped, her health or life is at risk, or if the foetus is seriously deformed. Last year Chile voted to overturn its total ban to allow access to safe abortions in certain circumstances.

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