Teodora del Carmen Vásquez was convicted of the aggravated murder of a newborn baby in 2008, but she says it was a stillbirth

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

An El Salvador court has rejected the appeal of a woman sentenced to 30 years in prison over what she says was a stillbirth.

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, 37, said she was working in 2007 when she began to experience intense pain, then bleeding. She called for help before fainting. As she came round, police officers surrounded her and accused her of murdering her baby by inducing an abortion of her nearly full-term baby.

El Salvador's anti-abortion law makes criminals of mothers who miscarry Read more

Authorities charged Vásquez with aggravated murder and she was convicted in 2008. Her attorneys appealed her sentence, presenting testimony that the baby was born dead.

The court said it relied on the government autopsy’s conclusion that the girl was born alive and asphyxiated.

The non-profit Center for Reproductive Rights, which has been campaigning for the release of dozens of other women convicted of murder in El Salvador for obstetric emergencies, said the decision was “another slap in the face for Teodora, who never committed any crime”.

“The Salvadoran court is perpetuating the criminal prosecution of women who suffer pregnancy complications, denying women their dignity, freedom and rights,” said Nancy Northup, the centre’s president and CEO.

“El Salvador’s abortion law criminalises and wrongfully imprisons women. Today the Salvadoran court chose to deny Teodora her due process.”

Human rights group Amnesty International called the decision a step back for justice.

“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.”

El Salvador is one of a handful of Latin American countries with total bans on abortion.

In 2014, a coalition of NGOs, led by Agrupación Ciudadana and the Center for Reproductive Rights, launched the “Las 17” online campaign to call for the release of women who had experienced obstetric emergencies and who were charged with having an illegal abortion and then convicted of murder. Three women have been released. But in July 19-year old Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz, who had been raped, was sentenced to 30 years for murder after she had a stillbirth.

The two organisations have filed two cases before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of some of the “Las17” women.

“The center, Agrupación Ciudadana, and global partners will continue to challenge El Salvador in the courts and international human rights bodies until Teodora and the remaining women are freed,” said Catalina Martinez Coral, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “This court decision will not stop us from fighting for Teodora’s freedom, Las 17 and all women who have been wrongfully imprisoned under the country’s draconian abortion law.”

A glimmer of hope that El Salvador could overturn its abortion ban emerged earlier this year with the introduction of a parliamentary bill that proposed allowing abortion in cases of rape or human trafficking, when the foetus in unviable or to protect the pregnant woman’s health or life. Recently, activists took to the streets to protest the absolute ban.

In August, Chile voted to overturn its complete ban to allow abortion in certain circumstances.



Last week Bolivia loosened its laws to allow girls and young women to access abortion services up to eight weeks into pregnancy. Prior to the change in new legislation, abortion was only available to women if their lives were in danger.