San Salvador, December 4 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Nine Salvadoran women have filed a lawsuit before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) after being imprisoned on homicide charges after serious pregnancy complications due to the country's absolute anti-abortion law.

The women's most basic rights were violated during the process, including the right “to personal integrity, health, private and family life, freedom from gender violence, equality before the law and non-discrimination,” stated the Center for Reproductive Rights, which handed the petition to the IACHR jointly with Agrupacion Ciudadana, on the behalf of the victims.

Under the country's strict abortion law, both women and doctors face harsh criminal penalties if a pregnancy is terminated, even sending many women who suffered miscarriages to prison. 

“Women who suffer pregnancy complications should never face criminal prosecution when they need quality medical care, and the nine women we represent should never have been treated as criminals and denied their freedom, dignity, and fundamental human rights,” stated Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“These women deserve justice and if we can’t find it here in El Salvador, we will find it at the international level,” added Morena Herrera, Executive Director of Agrupación Ciudadana, expressing hope that the IACHR will attend to their lawsuit.

El Salvador has one of the world's toughest abortion laws where a new penal code passed in 1998 prohibited the termination of pregnancy even in the cases the mother risked death if she gave birth.