Miscarriages Lead to Accusations of Murder Under El Salvador's Criminal Abortion Ban

Slate Magazine: Women Jailed for Miscarriages in El Salvador, by Amanda Marcotte:

El Salvador received plenty of international attention this summer for its strict ban on abortion, which led the government to deny an abortion to a woman who was near death and whose pregnancy had no chance in resulting in a live baby. The government eventually allowed her to end her pregnancy, as long as it was performed in the maximally dangerous way through cesarean section, but that doesn't mean that things are getting any better for women in El Salvador. As the BBC reported on Thursday, one major side effect of the country's anti-abortion law is that women are being jailed simply because their bodies failed to sustain a pregnancy. Showing up at a public hospital with a miscarriage is risky business in El Salvador, because instead of medical care, you might find yourself being cuffed to the bed and accused of "murder." . . .