She gave birth to her daughter in the bathroom, she died and she was imprisoned

The criminal prosecution against a 22-year-old woman in Salvador who gave birth at her home and her baby died after a few hours.

A judge in the city of Ahuachapán, 100 kilometers east of the capital, decided definitively not to prosecute Katia, who was at risk of a 30-year prison sentence, according to a statement from the Citizens’ Organization for the Decriminalization of Abortion (Agrupación Ciudadana por la Despenalización del Aborto Terapéutico, Ético y Eugenésico, ACDATEE).

In 2019, when the events had unfolded, the 22-year-old gave birth to a baby girl in a bathroom. Her relatives immediately took her, along with the baby, to the hospital emergency room to provide first aid. The little girl died at the hospital. The staff handed her over to the police. She was remanded in custody and later charged with intentionally killing her child.

Abortion has been banned since 1998

The decision by the prosecution to drop the prosecution on 19 October was welcomed by feminists in a country where abortion is criminalised.

“Once again, we have succeeded in confronting and overturning attempts to criminalize”, processes that “without basis and without proof (…) hunt down, accuse and seek to condemn women”, said Morena Herrera, member of the board of ACDATEE, in a press release of the organization.

Besides, he underlined that the Salvadoran legislation “stigmatizes” and “creates prejudices” against women who face a problem in pregnancy.

Since 1998, the penal code in El Salvador completely prohibits it abortioneven in cases where the pregnancy is due to rape or the life of the mother or the fetus is threatened, and carries a prison sentence of up to eight years for the operations of voluntary termination of pregnancy reports APE-MPE, citing AFP.

But prosecutors and judges often label even involuntary abortions as “premeditated homicides with aggravating circumstances,” a charge that carries a 30-50 year prison sentence.