Mexico: State of Guanajuato releases seven women jailed for abortions
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
- Yolanda Martínez Montoya, with fist raised, and her sister, María de los Angeles — La Jornada photo
[Translation of an article from La Jornada of Mexico City for September 8. See original article here. See also “More than 25 years in prison for having an abortion” posted here on August 22.]
by Carlos García
Guanajuato, Guanajuato, September 7 – “I am free because I am innocent. Justice has been served,” said Yolanda Martínez Montoya when she and six other women who had had miscarriages left the Guanajuato and Valle de Santiago prisons, where they were serving sentences of more than 25 years on murder charges.
On Tuesday a revision of the law on homicide of a family member went into effect, reducing to eight years the prison sentences of women convicted of killing a newly born infant. Because of this reform to the Penal Code, campesinas María Araceli Camargo Juárez, Ofelia Segura Frías, Yolanda Martínez Montoya, Liliana Morales Moreno, Ana Rosa Padrón Alarcón, Bonifacia Andrade and Susana Dueñas Rocha were released one by one, beginning at 5:30pm. (more…)