A woman in El Salvador has been jailed after she was accused of stabbing her baby six times as part of an illegal abortion.
The Central American country has some of the strictest abortion laws in the world, completely outlawing the procedure with no exceptions – not even when a pregnancy is a threat to a mother’s life.
Lesly Ramírez, 21, lost her baby on June 17, 2020, when she was five months pregnant.
She says she went to her outhouse and felt ‘something come out of her’.
Lesly tried to cut the umbilical cord herself but her house had no electricity and the dark meant she could not see properly, the Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion said.
Lesly, who was just 19 at the time, was rushed to hospital for treatment but was put into pre-trial detention only a week later.
The court hearing went ahead despite the youngster being too unwell to attend.
The authorities accused Lesly of carrying the baby to near-full term and then stabbing it in the neck six times.
The Citizen Group’s head, Morena Herrera, said: ‘It is not the first time that the prosecution has constructed a story that totally criminalizes women.’
Lesly was convicted of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 50 years on Wednesday.
The NGO, which plans to appeal the court’s verdict, said: ‘The legal process against Lesly was full of irregularities and prejudices.’
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