• Central America: A young woman from El Salvador can be sentenced to 40 years in jail for suffering an out-of-hospital birth
  • Justice: The young woman from El Salvador for whom the Prosecutor requested 40 years in prison for abortion after the baby died in childbirth
  • Evelyn Hernández "I went to jail for having an abortion"
What happened that November 24, 2011? At dawn I feel a strange pain. I go to the bathroom, which was a dark grave, and I feel that something falls quickly. And when I wake up I'm full of blood. I faint and wake up in the hospital handcuffed to a stretcher. The doctors and the police were telling me: "You are a murderer, you killed your son." I did not know I was pregnant. No one believed me. At two o'clock in the afternoon I am discharged and taken to preventive jail. In what situation was he there? ". At the first hearing, the judge asked: "How did you cut the umbilical cord?" The lawyer did not speak and I told the judge to analyze if I had taken something or introduced something. But they did not. They sent me to the women's prison to await the trial. There I was eight months. And the trial came ... Yes. In less than 10 minutes I was sentenced to 40 years. I thought: "When I leave, my son will be 46 years old." That was what depressed me. What was she accused of? Aggravated homicide. At the beginning, of abortion. But they change the crime and turn it into aggravated homicide. Therefore, the Prosecutor's Office says that there are no women imprisoned for abortion, but for killing their children. Under what conditions were the women he met in prison? There is no water. It is overpopulated; We were 250 in a space for 100. We slept on our side, on the floor. There is so much violation of rights there ... The officials took away the few things that the family brought us. They put their hands on our private parts to register us ... Why could he leave at four and a half years? Because the sentence was revised. It was proven that I had not killed my son. I was released and the judge said that the State should compensate me. But the State did not pay me, what he did was to persecute me. And how did he persecute her? At 10 days, the Prosecutor's Office appealed. My freedom was at risk. This is what happens to Evelyn Hernández today [acquitted in August after 33 months in jail for giving birth to a baby killed by a rape]. I suffered social and labor discrimination. I was going to look for work, they told me there was no place, but the sign said yes. I went to the market and they said, "Look, the killer." I heard the screams. It was marked. How did it leave El Salvador? Three Swedish NGOs invited me to a seminar. I arrived in Sweden and it was the first time I felt heard, protected, free. Although I won't be totally until women are. In El Salvador, Latin America or Africa. There is so much violation of sexual and reproductive rights ... What was Sweden based on granting asylum? What is torture for 40 years imprisoning a woman for being a woman. And for poor. How is a woman who aborts pressed in El Salvador today? The State has forgotten women. To the poor. The rich pay their private doctors. What does a woman who becomes pregnant with her rapist do? They force her to have the child. Maira, who spent 15 years in prison, Evelyn, Alba ... They were raped, they got pregnant, they lost their children, they were in jail and their rapist was free. My country protects the rapist and imprisons the victims. They raped me with 8 years. If she had become pregnant, what would she have done? What does a woman do there if pregnancy puts her life in danger? Die. It has already passed. There is talk of spontaneous abortion, where there was no will on the part of the woman. But abortion is a right. Do you believe it? Yes. No one can be forced to have their child if they don't want to. We see how many girls aged 10 to 14 are victims of sexual violence and are pregnant and the State is torturing them by forcing them. If I could have done something for my son I would have done it, but I can't force anyone. It's his life. On his shirt he says: 'Freedom for 17 and more.' What does it mean? We ask for the pardon of 17 women imprisoned for abortion. Some came out, but more arrive. Now there are 16. Who is behind the prohibition of abortion? Religion and machismo. The man wants to decide for the woman's body. Sexual rights are human rights and there is no law to protect them. In El Salvador, a man's life is worth more than a woman's. If he came back, what would happen to him? Not for the crime they say I committed, but for reporting. I can go to jail or they can make me disappear.

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