El Salvador court commutes 2nd woman’s abortion sentence

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – El Salvador’s Supreme Court has commuted the sentence of a second woman serving a prison sentence for what she said was a miscarriage.

Mayra Veronica Figueroa Marroquin left prison Tuesday after the court commuted her 30-year sentence to the 15 years she had already served.

Thirty-four-year-old Figueroa Marroquin said she suffered a miscarriage in 2003 while working as a housekeeper. But a court convicted her under El Salvador’s total abortion ban.

In February, the court commuted the 30-year sentence of Teodora del Carmen Vasquez for what she says was a stillbirth.

El Salvador is one of four Latin American countries with total bans on abortion.