Court case fuels hopes over abortion access across Latin America

Human rights activists in Latin America hope that a historic court hearing over the case of a Salvadoran woman who was denied an abortion despite her high-risk pregnancy could open the way for El Salvador to decriminalise abortions – and set an important precedent across the region.

The inter-American court of human rights (IACHR) considered the historic case of the woman, known as Beatriz, who was prohibited from having an abortion in 2013, even though she was seriously ill and the foetus she was carrying would not have survived outside the uterus.

An audience held by IACHR is the first time it has discussed the consequences of the country’s total criminalisation of abortion.

In El Salvador, abortion is fully criminalised in all circumstances, and can be punished by up to eight years in prison. Women can also be charged with aggravated homicide, with a 30 to 50-year prison sentence.

Beatriz’s case has been taken up by feminist organisations in El Salvador and across the region who hope it could create legal changes in access to sexual and reproductive rights, including abortion, in Latin America.

Beatriz was a young Salvadoran woman who sought an abortion to end her pregnancy in 2013. She suffered from lupus, arthritis and renal failure, and the foetus she was carrying suffered from anencephaly and would not survive outside the uterus.

She appealed to the Salvadoran supreme court of justice, which denied her request for an abortion. She was eventually permitted to have an emergency caesarean section after she became gravely ill; her baby lived only a few hours. Beatriz died after being involved in a minor traffic accident in 2017, in part owing to her physical weakness.

Anabel Recinos, a lawyer with the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, one of the groups representing Beatriz’s family, described the hearing as a historic moment. “The laws on abortion are going to change,” she said.

During the audience, held in San José, Costa Rica, the seven judges heard from Beatriz’s family and two doctors involved in her case.

Dr Guillermo Ortiz Avendaño told the judges that although the pregnancy was high risk given Beatriz’s health, his hands had been tied in terms of offering her an abortion.

Marcia Aguiluz, legal director for Latin America at Women’s Link Worldwide, said: “[Dr Ortiz’s] testimony made it clear that the penalisation [of abortion] doesn’t only impact women but also medical professionals.”

Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals can be jailed for up to 12 years if they are found to have helped a woman have an abortion.

Aguiluz said: “This case is crucially important for El Salvador. If we have a favourable result, the decision will reveal that these laws have led to the deaths of women in the country.”