• About
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff
    • Meet our Donors
    • News
  • Issues
    • Safety
    • Opportunity
    • Reporting
    • Recognition
    • Equity
  • Programs
    • Reporting Fellowships
      • Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship
      • ¡Exprésate! LGBTQI+ Reporting Initiative
      • Gender Justice Reporting Initiative
      • Global Health Reporting Initiative
      • Round Earth Media
    • Grants & Funds
      • Fund For Women Journalists
      • Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on MMIWG2T
      • Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism
      • Kim Wall Memorial Fund
      • Reproductive Rights Reporting Fund
      • Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the Americas
    • Physical & Digital Safety
      • Online Abuse and Harassment
      • Hostile Environment Training
      • Next Gen Safety Trainers
    • Mentorship & Professional Development
      • Gwen Ifill Mentorship Program
      • Fellowship Program for Afghan Women Journalists in Exile
      • Women in Politics and Media
    • Emergency Assistance
      • Emergency Fund for Women Journalists
      • Black Journalists Therapy Relief Fund
      • Alex Duval Smith Memorial Fund
    • Past Programs
  • Reporting
  • Community
  • Awards
    • Anja Niedringhaus Award
    • Courage in Journalism Award
    • Gwen Ifill Award
  • Resources
    • Self Care & Trauma
    • Research
    • Impact Reports
    • Webinars
  • Search
Search Donate
Reporting

Expecting In El Salvador

April 4, 2019 | Nadia Shira Cohen | The California Sunday Magazine

Expecting

The pregnant teen, the villager giving birth far from home, the woman imprisoned for miscarrying: pregnancy in El Salvador, where women can’t choose where, or whether, to give birth

Midwives who work in the poor, rural stretches of El Salvador rarely travel alone. They often visit gang-controlled areas to tend to their patients, women who have little access to medical care and even less say over their reproductive lives.

As of 1997, it is illegal to have an abortion in El Salvador. Women who miscarry or have stillbirths can be charged with homicide, which comes with a sentence of up to 50 years. About a third of all pregnancies are of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19, some of whom have been raped. A common concern among survivors is how they’ll support their child.

So women and girls have their babies, whether they want to or not, whether they’re ready to or not. An alarming number feel they have too few options and resort to taking their own lives. Suicide is now the primary cause of death among pregnant teens, with girls swallowing sulfur pills, traditionally used to wash beans.

It is in this climate that midwives spend their days hiking through cornfields, fending off dogs with sticks, carrying syringes loaded with contraception, advising girls on how to avoid pregnancy, and coaching others after they’ve conceived.

Midwife Lolita Hernández de Rivera (left) examines 24-year-old María Laura Linares, who is 18 weeks pregnant.

Patty Hernández Hernández with her 3-month-old granddaughter. Patty tended to her daughter-in-law’s pregnancy before she delivered. Midwives are not allowed to assist with hospital births.

Salvadora Dias Rivas (not pictured) was given a 30-year sentence on homicide charges. Salvadora admitted to the crime, although she says her boyfriend, who is in a gang, forced her to kill her baby. Her two children, Yessina Carolina (right) and Elias Edwardo (left), now live with their grandparents.

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez de Saldaña in the women’s prison in Ilopango. Teodora had a miscarriage in 2007 and was charged with homicide. She spent nine years in prison while her family helped raise her now-15-year-old son, Ángel.

Ángel was 4 years old when his mother was sent to prison.

María Cristina, 17 and 38 weeks pregnant, rests at the waiting house. She comes from a remote community called Pepestenango, on the outskirts of Suchitoto.

María Cristina gives birth to her son at the Suchitoto National Hospital.

Flor Arely Sánchez Paz (left) faced homicide charges and 40 years in prison after having an obstetric emergency in which she almost bled to death. Before she was acquitted, she spent nine months in a holding cell while her mother took care of her five children.

Flor’s daughter Mary at their home a week after her mother was released from jail   

 

About the Author

Nadia Shira Cohen

Nadia Shira Cohen is a freelance photojournalist contributing to the New York Times, National Geographic, Harpers and many international publications. She works frequently in Latin America as well as countries… Read More.

Original Publication
The California Sunday Magazine
Related Topics
Women's Rights
More From This Author
An unlikely feud between beekeepers and Mennonites simmers in Mexico It’s Said that When a Beekeeper Dies, his Bees Leave The perils of pregnancy in a country where abortion is a crime – in pictures See All

Sign Up For Our Mailing List

Mission

We unleash the potential of women journalists as champions of press freedom to transform the global news media.

Address

1625 K Street NW, Suite 1275
Washington, DC 20006, USA

Contact Us

info@iwmf.org
(+1) 202-496-1992

Connect
Privacy Terms of Service

Copyright © 2023 International Women's Media Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Nonprofit Web Design by NMC.