El Salvador: has a miscarriage, sentenced to 30 years

She had a miscarriage in 2019 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday.

It happened in El Salvador, one of the countries with the most restrictive legislation in the world on this aspect which provides penalties even in the event that the termination of pregnancy occurs for natural causes.

Esme, so the woman was identified, had had a miscarriage in the midst of an obstetric emergency.

After the incident, she had been held in custody for two years.

Released in October 2021, the sentence arrived on Monday.

"The ruling (...) is a severe blow on the road to overcoming the criminalization of obstetric emergencies which, as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has already pointed out, must be treated as public health problems", said Morena Herrera, president of the organization Citizen Group for the Depenalization of Abortion.

Salvadoran media recall that it is the first time in seven years that a woman struggling with a miscarriage or due to an obstetric emergency has been sentenced by a court in El Salvador.

She then underlines the fact that this is the first sentence handed down since the government of President Nayib Bukele, who had promised to "put an end to the systematic persecution of women who face health emergencies during their pregnancies" in office.