From Change.org – February 19, 2018 – Teodora del Carmen Vásquez walked out of prison in El Salvador on Thursday, February 15, 2018 after having spent 10 years incarcerated for a crime she didn’t commit. Teodora had a stillbirth in July 2007. Nine months pregnant, she started having intense pain and called several times for an ambulance after which she went to the bathroom and passed out. When help arrived 4 hours after her initial call, she was found unconscious and her baby dead in the toilet. Teodora was charged with killing her baby and sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated homicide.

Despite testimony by medical experts that she had had a stillbirth, Teodora lost an appeal in December 2017. Fortunately, over the course of the previous two years, a group of government ministries recommended to the Supreme Court that Teodora’s sentence be commuted. According to a Univision report “El Salvador’s Supreme Court declared in a ruling released Wednesday night [Feb. 14, 2018] that Vasquez’s sentence should be commuted citing ’arguments of a legal nature, of justice and equity.’”

As marvelous as this news is, many women remain imprisoned for the same “crime” under El Salvador’s draconian abortion laws. On behalf of Teodora, Amnesty International Group 11 thanks you for signing her petition.