El Salvador’s Disgrace

The Center’s president and CEO, Nancy Northup, reflects on the agonizing plight of an El Salvadoran woman known publicly as Beatriz, who for many weeks has faced the risk of death and suffered cruel and inhuman treatment because of the country’s complete ban on abortion. El Salvador may seem like an altogether different world in terms of human rights, but this horrific story would be reality in the U.S. if extremist anti-choice forces were to get their way, as Nancy points out in USA Today:

Beatriz’s story reveals the ugly truth about the consequences of [the opposition’s] effort to choke off access to abortion entirely: Many more women will be forced into the predicament facing Beatriz. Many will suffer devastating harms to their health. And many will die.

In a separate piercing letter to the editorial board of the New York Times, Nancy explains the dire consequences of absolute abortion bans that are found not just in El Salvador but all over the world.