Rape victim tests strict abortion laws
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — A young woman who birthed a baby into a toilet in El Salvador is facing a second trial for murder Monday in a case that has drawn international attention because of the country’s highly restrictive abortion laws.
Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez had already served 33 months of her 30year sentence when the Supreme Court overturned the ruling against her in February and ordered a new trial, with a new judge. This is the first retrial of an abortion case in a country that aggressively pursues legal cases against women who have experienced miscarriages and obstetric emergencies, accusing them of murder.
Women’s rights advocates hope the new government of President Nayib Bukele, who took office in June, will soften the country’s stance on women’s reproductive rights — starting with an acquittal for Hernandez. Dozens of women have been jailed in El Salvador with similar convictions.
“What Evelyn is living is the nightmare of many women in El Salvador,” said her lawyer, Elizabeth Deras.
Hernandez says she had no idea she was pregnant, as a result of a rape. She recalls making her way to an outhouse in a poor, rural community one day in 2016 with strong abdominal pains. She squatted to defecate, she says, and the baby must have slid to the bottom of the septic tank. Evelyn’s mother says she found her daughter passed out next to the makeshift toilet and hailed a pickup truck to transport her to a hospital 30 minutes away.
The fetus was 32 weeks old — nearly full term — and forensic examiners weren’t able to determine whether the death occurred in the womb, or in the feces. The cause of death remains unclear.
Both women insist they didn’t know there was a baby in the septic tank.
Prosecutors don’t believe them, though the Supreme Court accepted defense lawyers’ argument that no proof had been presented that Hernandez caused the baby’s death.
Bukele has said he believes abortion is only acceptable when the mother’s life is at risk but that he’s “completely against” criminalizing women who have miscarriages.
“If a poor woman has a miscarriage, she’s immediately suspected of having had an abortion,” Bukele said in 2018. “We can’t assume guilt when what a woman needs is immediate assistance.”
Women who turn up at public hospitals following a miscarriage are sometimes accused of having killed the fetus.
Recent public opinion polls in El Salvador show broad support for more lenient abortion laws, such as allowing medical interventions when a mother’s life is in danger or the fetus is not viable. However, many Salvadorans still believe rape victims should carry out their pregnancies.
Every year, an estimated 25,000 women are impregnated after rapes in the country of just over 6 million inhabitants.