TIME00269
Latin America and the Caribbean
El Salvador
Yes
Abortion
Neutral/neither
Court ruling
08-2009
El Salvador: Cristina Quintanilla was released from prison after the Supreme Court ruled that her sentence had been excessive. In October 2004, when she was 18 and seven months pregnant, she collapsed in pain on the floor of her family home. Unconscious and bleeding heavily, she was taken to the hospital by her mother. She lost her child. Cristina was subsequently accused of killing her child. Within ten months, she was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.