Woman who bore rapist's baby faces 20 years in El Salvador jail

[Soph0571]

A rape victim is facing 20 years in jail charged with attempted murder, after she gave birth to her abuser’s baby in a latrine in El Salvador.

In a case that highlights the rigidity of the country’s abortion laws, Imelda Cortez, 20, from an impoverished rural family in San Miguel, has been in custody since April 2017 after giving birth to a baby girl fathered by her abusive elderly stepfather.
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Abortion is illegal in all circumstances in El Salvador and the total ban has led to aggressive persecution of women.

Like Cortez, most are poor, single rural-dwellers convicted on tenuous evidence after having a gynaecological complication such as a miscarriage or stillbirth.

While Cortez was in hospital, her stepfather visited her, threatening to kill her, her siblings and her mother if she reported the abuse. Another patient overheard and told a nurse, who called the police.

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/nov/12/victim-who-bore-abusers-baby-in-a-latrine-jailed-for-20-years-in-el-salvador-imelda-cortez|

A catholic patriarchy! Hardly surprising that woman are treated so appallingly

[snowybirdie]

1. Can anyone question

why these woman walk thousands of miles to the U.S. to escape this?

[unconventional]

2. Stepfather has yet to be charged with anything

"At first, prosecutors accused Cortez of inventing the abuse to justify her crime, until a DNA test confirmed the baby’s paternity. Her stepfather is yet to be charged."

[marble falls]

3. What? The rapist getting away and the victim is abused further by the authorities!!