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Isabel who is 21 years old has served 2 years and 8 moths of her 30 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

Marie Claire Magazine


THIS IS WHAT A WORLD WITHOUT REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS WOULD BE LIKE


Text by Jason Motlagh and Suez Taylor


As the abortion wars rage here at home, El Salvador, the country with the strictest anti-abortion laws—where women are put in prison or risk death to avoid having a baby—shows how we might live in a world without reproductive rights.

On the morning of her arrest in 2008, Carmen Guadalupe Vásquez woke up with the fetus of a stillborn child lying in a pool of blood between her legs. Nearly nine months before, the 18-year-old had been raped by a neighbor who'd warned her that her corpse would be found in a black plastic bag if she dared tell anyone. Vásquez, with long dark hair that cloaks somber eyes, had dropped out of school in second grade to work as a live-in domestic servant in San Salvador, El Salvador's capital city. Her mother needed the money Vásquez earned to support eight children after her father had abandoned them. Vásquez decided to keep the child and said nothing—not to her mother, who wondered why her belly was swelling without a steady man in her life, or to her employer, for fear of losing her $80-a-month job (she hid her bump with baggy clothes). "Every day, I asked myself, How can I give this baby a good life?" she recalls.


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Maria Teresa who is 33 years old has served 4 years and 3 moths of her 40 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

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Mayra who is 31 years old has served 13 years of her 30 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

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The photographs within this site are presented for web browser viewing only, nothing contained within this site may be reproduced, downloaded, stored, copied, manipulated, altered or used in any form without prior written permission from the copyright own

Alba Lorena who is 32 years old has served 9 years of her 30 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

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The photographs within this site are presented for web browser viewing only, nothing contained within this site may be reproduced, downloaded, stored, copied, manipulated, altered or used in any form without prior written permission from the copyright own

Alba Lorena who is 27 years old has served 6 years of her 30 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

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The photographs within this site are presented for web browser viewing only, nothing contained within this site may be reproduced, downloaded, stored, copied, manipulated, altered or used in any form without prior written permission from the copyright own

Angeles who is 33 years old has served 8 years of her 35 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

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Enavinda who is 32 years old has served 7 years of her 15 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

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Cinthia who is 27 years old has served 7 years and 8 months of her 30 year sentence for aggravated homicide, accused of intentionally aborting her child although she had a miscarriage. There is a national campaign called Las 17 being run by human and women rights groups in El Salvador to have the Salvadoran government dismiss the charges and free them.

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