El Salvador abortion case fuels hopes for expanded access across Latin America
In “‘Historic moment’ as El Salvador abortion case fuels hopes for expanded access across Latin America,” The Guardian reports on the case of Beatriz, a Salvadoran woman who was denied an abortion in 2013 despite her ill health and high-risk pregnancy. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights considered Beatriz’s case this week, marking the first time that the Court has discussed the consequences of El Salvador’s total criminalization of abortion. A decision is expected later this year.
In the piece, Catalina Martínez Coral, the Center’s senior regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, expresses her hope that the Court will rule that El Salvador’s criminalization of abortion violates the American convention on human rights and a wide range of human rights. “It would mean that all countries that penalize abortion will have to update their legislation in accordance with the Inter-American court’s decision, which means they will have to end their criminalization,” she said.
Martínez Coral said she worried, however, that the court’s decision might rely on “perceptions of risk” to life and health. “These risks are very subjective … If we decriminalize abortion based on exceptions… we are leaving women exposed to the subjectivity or the interpretation of the medical personnel.”
Read the article here: