Beatriz vs El Salvador: The landmark case that could change the most restrictive abortion laws in the Americas

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is investigating how a 21-year-old, who was diagnosed with lupus and carrying a fetus that would not survive outside the womb, was not allowed to terminate the pregnancy

Noor Mahtani, San Salvador
MAR 23, 2023

“When my daughter was told she was pregnant and had lupus, the doctors said she could not continue with her pregnancy, because both of their lives were in danger. They said that there was only one way she could be saved, but that they couldn’t do it. They couldn’t allow an abortion.” That’s how the mother of Beatriz, a young woman who lost her life after being denied an abortion, began her testimony in the landmark case: Beatriz vs El Salvador.

For the first time, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) is investigating the total ban on abortion in El Salvador, where it is a crime under any circumstances, and punishable by up to 50 years in prison. A favorable ruling for the family of Beatriz (whose real name remains under seal) could ease the most restrictive anti-abortion law on the continent and set a precedent for the region.

Continued: https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-03-23/beatriz-vs-el-salvador-the-landmark-case-that-could-change-the-most-restrictive-abortion-laws-in-the-americas.html

El Salvador – A woman lost her pregnancy but was jailed for abortion. She later died.

El Salvador is committing "gender violence" by criminalizing women with obstetric emergencies, human rights groups argued before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

March 17, 2021 – NBC News

By Albinson Linares, Noticias Telemundo and
Eulimar Núñez

Manuela, a mother of two in rural El Salvador, couldn't even walk to the
hospital.

In February 2008, her relatives had to wrap her in a hammock and transport her
as best they could to the health center two hours away, after a pregnant
Manuela suffered severe pelvic pain, started hemorrhaging, expelled her fetus
and passed out.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/woman-lost-pregnancy-was-jailed-abortion-later-died-rcna440

The future of abortion access in the United States

The future of abortion access in the United States

By Anu Kumar, President and CEO
Thursday, July 19, 2018

Well, now we know—President Trump has nominated Brett Kavanaugh to fill Justice Kennedy’s U.S. Supreme Court seat. When Justice Kennedy announced he’ll retire at the end of July, there was a collective panic attack on the part of thousands of us who work to protect reproductive rights.

Kennedy was seen as a centrist and a critical “swing vote” on the court. In the early 1990s and again in 2016, he voted to preserve Roe v. Wade. What’s burning in my mind and the minds of so many of my colleagues and compatriots is Trump’s vow to ensure the Court has another justice who’s against abortion rights.

Continued: http://www.ipas.org/en/News/2018/July/The-future-of-abortion-access-in-the-United-States.aspx

On the Front Lines of El Salvador’s Underground Abortion Economy

Amid an indifferent state and an activist Church, a defiant network of health workers struggle to offer a reprieve from the world’s most restrictive abortion laws.

By Nina Strochlic
January 3, 2017, Foreign Policy
On the Front Lines of El Salvador’s Underground Abortion Economy

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — The doctor doesn’t want his real name used, and when asked what he’d like to be called instead he laughs. “Dr. Hell,” he says. With a straw fedora, white Ralph Lauren button-down, and trimmed goatee, he looks better suited to the Hamptons than performing illegal underground abortions in El Salvador, a violence-wracked sliver of Central America that was recently crowned the world’s murder capital.

But halfway through August, he’d already helped three women get abortions under the most restrictive circumstances in the world. Since 1998, El Salvador has been one of six countries where abortion is banned under all circumstances, regardless of whether the mother’s life is at risk, the fetus is viable, or the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

[continued at link]
Source: Foreign Policy