A young woman who suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage has been jailed for 50 years in El Salvador for breaking the nation’s outrageously strict abortion laws.
Lesly Lisbeth Ramirez Ramirez, 21, was found guilty of aggravated homicide for “failing to protect her child”, sparking protests in El Salvador.
She was arrested in June 2020 when she had gone to the loo and delivered her daughter stillborn into the toilet bowl.
Her relatives, with the intention of helping her, called the police and took the then 19-year-old to hospital.
Soon afterwards she was accused of a major crime under El Salvador's tough abortion laws and a hearing was held ten days after her loss.
Lesly was unable to attend as she was still receiving blood transfusions and a judge ordered her to be remanded in custody later the same day.
The judge in his ruling, said: "Mothers are the source of protection for children in any circumstance of life and you were not."
She has now been jailed for 50 years.
Rights groups say this is the first time the maximum sentence has been given since abortion in any circumstance was criminalised in the country in 1998.
The Citizens' Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion said of the ruling: “The legal process against Lesly was full of irregularities and prejudices.
“With all these gaps and doubts, the judge sentenced Lesly basing his decision on mere gender bias."
In a statement the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of El Salvador said: "Lesly Lisbeth Ramirez Ramirez, 21, will spend the next 50 years in jail for having taken the life of her newborn descendant, as confirmed by prosecutors from the San Miguel Life Unit.
"The accused was deemed responsible for the aggravated homicide of the baby for causing six injuries to her neck with a knife.
"The coroner's inquest gave as the final cause of death 'a blunt-cut wound to the throat produced by a knife'."
"According to the investigations, the young woman hid her pregnancy from her relatives, and had an out-of-hospital delivery, in which she gave birth to a girl who was born alive and who, through forensic examinations, was estimated to be between thirty-seven and forty weeks of gestation.
"Later, she caused the baby the wounds and left her lying on the patio of the house.
"When her relatives became aware of the unfortunate events, they helped the accused and transferred her to the San Miguel National Hospital, where she was detained in flagrante delicto by agents from the National Civil Police.
"The processing of the scene, where the knife used in the crime was found, and the removal of the baby's body, took place in the early hours of 18th June, 2020."
