Mexican woman jailed for miscarriage released after conviction is overturned

Dafne McPherson was accused of murdering her newborn and found guilty in July 2016, but an appeals court says evidence was flimsy

David Agren in Mexico City
Fri 25 Jan 2019 09.00 GMT

A Mexican woman who was sentenced to 16 years in jail after suffering a miscarriage in a department store bathroom has walked free after a court in the central state of Querétaro overturned her homicide conviction.

Prosecutors had accused Dafne McPherson, 29, of murdering her newborn, but an appeal court judge found that the scientific evidence used to convict her was flimsy.

The case highlights the criminalization of women who suffer miscarriages in parts of Mexico with intensely conservative and Catholic cultures.

Mexico City decriminalised abortion a decade ago, but it remains illegal in much of the country, and women who suffer complicated births or spontaneous abortions are often targeted for prosecution.

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