Jailed for Miscarriage, Women Reveal the Cost of Criminalizing Abortion Jennifer Swann - TakePart
go to original December 1, 2015

Maria Teresa Rivera didn’t know she was pregnant until the November morning four years ago when she suffered a miscarriage. She was rushed to the hospital after her mother-in-law found her collapsed and bleeding on the floor. But after receiving medication, Rivera was handcuffed and detained by the police when a health worker accused her of having had an abortion.

Rivera, 32, is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence after being found guilty of aggravated homicide in a 2012 ruling that has been highly contested by women’s rights organizations around the world. She is one of at least 19 women behind bars for pregnancy-related charges in El Salvador, where abortion is not only illegal but can be considered a form of murder punishable by incarceration. Rivera’s story is detailed in a report published Monday by the human rights organization Amnesty International that aims to show how El Salvador’s strict anti-abortion law can wreak havoc on the lives of children whose mothers have been imprisoned.

While previous legislation in Central America’s most densely populated nation allowed for women to seek abortions in cases of emergency, including rape or incest, a law passed in 1998 cracked down on reproductive rights, criminalizing abortion no matter the circumstance. Because of the law’s framework, women like Rivera who suffer miscarriages or other childbirth-related complications have also faced charges, according to the report.

Read the rest at TakePart

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Photo: Amnesty International/Twitter

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