The Seventeen

The Seventeen is the group of women imprisoned in El Salvador, who have been accused of aggravated murder after having had an obstetric emergency. All of them belong to the Salvadorean rural and urban working class. Many of the women became pregnant after being sexually abused. At the beginning there were 17 cases, but there have been 181 women criminalized due to the total ban or abortion in their country. The 17 women have been sentenced to 30 and 40 years of prison for aggravated murder for having had a miscarriage or stillbirth. Today there are 18 women in prison.