"The judge felt free to create his own narrative of the facts: Manuela was an unfaithful wife, lacking 'maternal instinct,' who killed her child in an act 'contrary to nature itself.' As soon as Manuela had been admitted to the hospital, a female doctor had reported her and the police had been sent to search the shack where she lived. There, they opened the latrine pit and forced Manuela’s illiterate father to register the fetus with a first and last name (the family’s). The victim was no longer Manuela; instead, the patriarchy assigned itself the role by representing an unborn creature, named so it could be publicly cast as an innocent.
There is no way to separate the abortion issue from gender equality policies, because it is by criminalizing reproductive rights that the life plans of young women are controlled Denying Manuela the right to a defense and never taking her body’s truth into account, the court quickly handed down its decision, sentencing her to 30 years. Forced to sleep on her cell floor, she was persecuted in prison and suffered from her painful cancer. She received hardly any visitors and died two years after the obstetric emergency that had prompted her miscarriage. Hers was a sick and suffering body, but one ignored by the fury of the police, courts and medical establishment."
~ D. Diniz & G. Carino
"From Herrera to Herrera: women against the patriarchy in El Salvador" | USA | EL PAÍS in English
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