Teodora Vasquez

Photo via @SalilShetty/Twitter

A woman in El Salvador will spend 30 years in jail for having a miscarriage

In 2007, Teodora Vasquez was charged for an 'aggravated homicide' when she had a miscarriage.

 

Tess Cagle

IRL

Posted on Dec 15, 2017   Updated on May 22, 2021, 7:54 am CDT

A 37-year-old woman in El Salvador will spend the next two decades in jail because she gave birth to a stillborn baby in 2007, the Huffington Post reports.

Teodora Vasquez was arrested after she fainted at work and miscarried her child, and has spent the last ten years behind bars after being charged with committing an “aggravated homicide.” Though Amnesty International spent this week trying to appeal the case on behalf of Vasquez, the court upheld the 30-year sentence. 

El Salvador has had a total ban on abortion—which is the strictest in the world—since 1998 and women who experience miscarriages often spend time in jail. Currently, 28 women sit behind bars for similar charges as Vasquez’s, according to Reuters.

“Teodora’s tragic story is a sad illustration of everything that is wrong with the justice system in El Salvador, where human rights seem to be a foreign concept,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty’s Americas director. “Instead of punishing Teodora for being a woman, authorities in El Salvador must urgently take a hard look at their outrageous anti-abortion law and take immediate steps to repeal it.”

Earlier this year, the United Nation condemned El Salvador’s law against abortion, which does not allow for exception even in cases of rape, incest, or in instances that could prove fatal for the mother. This week, as Vasquez’s case drew international coverage, people on Twitter also called for the end of the law.  

https://twitter.com/cryztallize/status/941441754385076224

Not everyone in the United States disagrees with El Salvador, however. The Guardian reports that anti-abortion group Human Life International has quietly funded Sí a la Vida, the Salvadoran organization principally responsible for the country’s abortion ban, since 2000.

Vasquez’s lawyer, Victor Hugo Mata said her case cannot be appealed again and that there’s not much hope that her fate will change.

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*First Published: Dec 15, 2017, 10:27 am CST