El Salvador's Supreme Court Rejects Appeal for Life-Saving Abortion

After weeks of deliberation, the Salvadoran Supreme Court has ruled against granting an abortion to a woman with a high-risk pregnancy whose fetus has little chance of survival, a case which illustrates the restrictive anti-abortion laws common across the region.

The case of “Beatriz” has received international attention in recent months (see The New York Times, Salon and Al Jazeera English), prompting several UN human rights rapporteurs and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to call for the government to authorize her abortion.

Beatriz has been diagnosed with lupus and kidney failure, and ultrasound scans reveal that the fetus is developing without significant portions of the brain, meaning it will not survive infancy. In March, the National Maternity Hospital asked for permission from the government to perform an abortion because of the “high risk of maternal death.”

The trouble is that El Salvador’s laws prohibit abortions, with no exceptions. If Beatriz were to seek an abortion, she could be sentenced with up to 50 years in prison, and the doctor performing the procedure would lose his license and receive up to a 12 year sentence.

Unfortunately, yesterday the Supreme Court ruled against the request. El Faro reports that the decision was 4 to 1, with the majority opinion contending that allowing the abortion would privilege  the rights of the mother over those of her child.

Such arguments are common throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. While abortion has been decriminalized in some countries and territories, it remains the region with the most severe anti-abortion laws in the world. So far just three countries (Cuba, Uruguay and Guyana) permit abortion without restrictions in the region. This contributes to the highest regional rate of unsafe abortions per capita in the world (31 per 1,000 women), according to the World Health Organization.

News Briefs

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