Women jailed under El Salvador’s strict abortion laws open up to AP journalists, warning the U.S. against a total ban.
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers overturning the constitutional right to abortion, New York-based reporter Luis Henao and video journalist Jessie Wardarski provided a compelling account of what can happen under a total abortion ban, through the testimonials of women who were raped or suffered miscarriages in El Salvador — where the law committed them to long prison terms.
The story took root in February, when Religion Team news director David Crary, liaising with AP Latin America and enterprise editors, proposed sending two of the team’s journalists to El Salvador to report on the harsh anti-abortion law in the predominantly Catholic country. The project took on new timeliness in early May, just two weeks before the trip, when a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion indicated a majority of justices were prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Henao and Wardarski started by interviewing experts and activists, and arranged to meet with seven women willing to share on camera their stories of being imprisoned under the law.
Teodora del Carmen Vásquez, who was found guilty of what the court said was an illegal abortion via a miscarriage, arrives in a courtroom to appeal her 30-year prison sentence, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Dec. 13, 2017. Her sentence was commuted in 2018 after she had already served more than 10 years for what she has always maintained was a stillbirth.
AP Photo / Salvador Melendez
Teodora del Carmen Vásquez sits for an interview at her organization, Mujeres Libres (Free Women), in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 20, 2022. She says that when she had a stillbirth at work of her nearly full-term fetus, instead of an ambulance, officers drove her to a police station where she was arrested on suspicion of violating El Salvador’s strict abortion law. Vásquez served more than 10 years in prison before her sentence was commuted.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Mariana López begins to cry in Ahuachapan, El Salvador, May 19, 2022, as she recalls the loss and trauma she endured after being accused of having an abortion. She was imprisoned for 17 years and forced to leave her toddler son, with whom she no longer has a relationship.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
In San Salvador, El Salvador, May 17, 2022, Imelda plays with the daughter of a woman who had been arrested on charges of provoking an abortion. Imelda says she was repeatedly raped from age 8 to 18 by her mother's partner and became pregnant by him. She gave birth in a latrine and although the infant survived, she was accused of attempted murder due to the circumstances of the birth. She was freed from prison in 2018 after a court determined that she had not tried to kill her baby. Imelda, who is studying to become a nurse, does not think women should be forced to carry a child conceived by rape.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Christian icons sit on display in the office of Salvadoran lawmaker Guillermo Gallegos in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 16, 2022. Lawmakers voted last year to uphold the country’s abortion ban, one of the world’s strictest, with some citing Scripture.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Salvadoran lawmaker Guillermo Gallegos sits for a portrait in his office in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 16, 2022. Gallegos says allowing abortion would countermand deeply held beliefs among a large majority in El Salvador. “There is no valid reason why abortion can be decriminalized in our country,” the lawmaker says.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
In San Salvador, El Salvador, May 18, 2022, Jesús holds a photo of a drawing of his mother Manuela, who was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of breaching El Salvador’s abortion law after she suffered an obstetric emergency. His mother died from cancer in 2010 while serving a 30-year sentence for aggravated homicide. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights recently ruled that the Salvadoran government had violated Manuela’s rights and ordered it to pay damages to her two sons who were left orphaned.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Jesús closes his eyes in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 18, 2022, as he tells the story of his mother Manuela, who was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of breaching El Salvador’s abortion law after she suffered an obstetric emergency. He and his younger brother were left orphaned wheb she died in 2010 while serving a 30-year sentence. He now retells the family’s story in hopes that other children won’t have to face the same suffering.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Cindy, standing with her with her son and niece at left, help a young neighbor practice his numbers in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 20, 2022. In 2014 she was imprisoned after an obstetric emergency that she suffered in a shopping mall bathroom. Since being released in 2020, she has reflected on the time lost, time away from work, her son, and her studies. She dreams of one day traveling abroad with her son and starting over in a new place.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
In San Salvador, El Salvador, May 20, 2022, Cindy, left, leans on mom Aracely, who supported Cindy when she was imprisoned in 2014 after an obstetric emergency. Cindy and her son live with her parents as she resumes her tourism studies. Because it’s been hard for Cindy to find work, she and her mom make handcrafted piñatas for children, selling them out of their home.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Cinthia Rodriguez holds her daughter at a park in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 17, 2022. When Rodriguez had a stillbirth at home in 2008, a police patrol took her to a hospital, where she was handcuffed to a gurney; officers told her she was under arrest for allegedly inducing an abortion. She was later charged with aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison. El Salvador has prosecuted at least 181 women who experienced obstetric emergencies in recent decades. Rodriguez is one of the 65 women who have been freed with the help of women’s rights collectives.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Zuleyma Beltrán, left, holds hands with her 8-year-old daughter at the organization, Mujeres Libres (Free Women) in San Salvador, El Salvador., May 19, 2022. After losing a pregnancy in 1999, police suspected Beltrán of inducing an abortion. She was ultimately convicted of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 26 years in prison. She served more than a decade.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Karen, who was convicted of aggravated homicide for allegedly terminating her pregnancy, sits for an interview in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 17, 2022. At 21, she was alone when she fainted while having an obstetric emergency. She woke up at the hospital handcuffed to a gurney and was later sentenced to 30 years. After spending seven years in prison, women’s advocates won her release this past December.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Karen, who was convicted of aggravated homicide for allegedly terminating her pregnancy, stands for a portrait in San Salvador, El Salvador, 17, 2022. At 21, she fainted while having an obstetric emergency alone at her grandmother’s home. She woke up at the hospital handcuffed to a gurney and was later sentenced to 30 years. In prison, other inmates told Karen she didn’t deserve to live. She served seven years before being released last December. She now tries to make up for lost time by playing soccer with her 14-year-old son and cooking his favorite meals. “I never lost faith in God that I would recover my freedom, because I was innocent,” Karen said. “And I asked God every day to reunite me with my son.”
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
From left, Imelda, Cinthia Rodriguez and Karen, all formerly arrested on suspicion of inducing an abortion, sit for a portrait in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 17, 2022. The three are among the 65 women who have been freed from prison with the help of the nonprofit Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion and other women’s rights collectives.
AP Photo / Jessie Wardarski
Once in El Salvador, the pair traveled to impoverished rural areas, meeting some of the women in their homes and documenting their harrowing stories, as well as their efforts to help end the abortion ban even as they reconnect with their families and rebuild their lives.
To the formerly imprisoned Salvadoran women, their plight should serve as a cautionary tale for Americans.
One woman said she’d been raped by her mother’s partner for years as a child; another spoke for the first time ever to journalists after recently being released from prison. Such encounters produced absorbing text, photos and video.
AP global religion reporter Luis Andres Henao talks with a nun at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in San Salvador while reporting on El Salvador’s strict abortion law, May 17, 2022.
AP / Jessie Wardarski
The AP pair also sought to include another side of the contentious issue, and in that effort, persistence paid off. When the Catholic cardinal, Gregorio Rosas Chavez, declined an interview request, Henao and Wardarski learned that he celebrated a daily Mass and showed up at dawn. After they explained the importance of including the church in the story, Chavez granted them an on-camera interview.
Although the AP and some other media outlets have written previously about Salvadoran women convicted and imprisoned under the country’s rigid abortion law, little approaches the depth and intimacy of this all-formats package, including the on-camera interviews in the homes of women who previously spoke only at tightly controlled news conferences.
Contributing to the coverage were Marko Alvarez in Colombia, Paul Byrne in Paraguay and US-based Vanessa Alvarez, Maye-E Wong and Dario Lopez, all of whom helped shape the powerful visuals, and the Religion Team’s Holly Meyer and Peter Orsi who played key roles in editing the text pieces.
The resulting all-formats package, and a sidebar with vignettes of the seven women interviewed, were used by hundreds of newspapers and broadcasters, including the Washington Post, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, NBC News and ABC News. The work was the topic of impassioned commentary and exchanges on social media over the weekend, and was widely praised by experts on the issue.
AP and others have previously written about about the prosecution of Salvadoran women under the country’s abortion ban, but not with the depth and intimacy of this package.
AP Executive Editor Julie Pace wrote: “This is obviously a difficult and nuanced issue to report on and you pulled it off exceptionally well. Thanks for shedding light on a story that might otherwise not have been told to much of the audience AP reaches.”
For engaging, insightful coverage that gives voice to women who have suffered the consequences of an abortion ban, shedding light on an issue that sharply divides opinions in the U.S. and beyond, Henao and Wardarski earn AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner honors.
Visit AP.org to request a trial subscription to AP's video, photo and text services.
For breaking news, visit apnews.com
