El Salvador woman at centre of abortion rights case acquitted

El Salvador woman at centre of abortion rights case acquitted

A woman in El Salvador who was jailed for 30 years following a court case that drew international attention to the country’s strict anti-abortion laws has been acquitted following a re-trial.

Evelyn Hernández, 21, was arrested in 2016 and charged with aggravated homicide after police recovered the body of a baby from the septic tank at her home.

Ms Hernández said she did not know she was pregnant and had fainted on the toilet without realising that she was in childbirth.

Human rights activists in the Central American country, which has some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, say that women who suffer obstetric emergencies are often wrongly convicted of crimes.

Women who obtain an abortion typically face jail sentences of between two and eight years, but many women are instead charged with aggravated homicide.

Ms Hernández’s 2017 conviction was overturned last year and she was acquitted in the re-trial on Monday.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, said: “This is a resounding victory for the rights of women in El Salvador. It reaffirms that no woman should be wrongly accused of homicide for the simple fact of suffering an obstetric emergency.

“Now that Evelyn has been acquitted, Amnesty International calls on El Salvador to end the shameful and discriminatory practice of criminalizing women once and for all by immediately revoking the nation’s draconian anti-abortion laws.”

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