The facts happened this Sunday when the woman gave birth to the child that weighted 2.2kg, and then caused multiple wounds with a razor blade. Manzano hid her pregnancy from her father and other family members with the help of a corset that she used until giving birth.
When taken to the Razetti hospital, at 2pm, the baby arrived with no vital signs; meanwhile the mother had a panic attack and screamed that she did not want to be a mother, according to comments from people in the hospital.
Later, at home, she killed her baby.
This is a truly hopeless story, and nothing can excuse what Manzano did, but it’s not hard to wonder if things would be different if abortion was legal in the country.
Unfortunately, abortion in the extremely Catholic country — According to the CIA Factbook, 2009, 96 percent of the population is Catholic — is currently illegal except in cases of a threat to the life of the mother. The punishment for a woman who has an abortion otherwise is six months to 2 years in prison and the punishment for a doctor or other person who performs the procedure is 1 to 3 years. Harsher penalties may be applied if the pregnant woman dies as a result of the procedure.
[El Universal]
Shutterstock/Nadezhda Bolotina
