Artists and activists are telling the stories of women who've died from high-risk pregnancies in a push to add exceptions to the ban.
Aug. 30, 2025
By Carmen Sesin
With a birthday cake in hand, well-known Dominican Republic comedian Carlos Sánchez recounted in an Instagram post how 25-year-old Winifer Núñez Beato died in 2021 after doctors on the island refused to end her high-risk pregnancy because of the country’s total abortion ban.
Núñez Beato left behind a husband and a young daughter. In the video, Sánchez said the cake is not for his birthday, but rather to mark another year where he’s asking for women not to die because of a law that stops doctors from saving their lives.
Sánchez told NBC News he felt compelled to use his platform to raise awareness because “it’s a barbarity that in this day and age a mother has to put her life at risk over a risky pregnancy that could be ended but the law prohibits doctors to do so.”