Activists Urge Human Rights Court to Condemn El Salvador's Abortion Ban
By Reuters
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March 6, 2023, at 10:16 p.m.
SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Women's rights activists on Monday called for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to condemn El Salvador in a case brought a decade ago by a woman who died after being forced to carry a pregnancy, although the fetus could not survive.
In February 2013, a young woman known only as Beatriz was diagnosed with her second high-risk pregnancy.
Living with lupus disease, she was told she would likely die if the pregnancy continued and anencephaly - a lethal condition under which parts of the brain and skull do not develop inside the womb - meant the fetus could not survive.
Beatriz appealed to the Supreme Court and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR), but the Salvadoran court rejected her request for an abortion and in June she underwent a C-section. The child died hours later. Beatriz' health deteriorated and she died four years later, aged 26.
"We were filled with pain at her passing, and still are when we go to visit her grave," her brother Humberto told a news conference. "Her son asks where his mama is and hugs her tombstone."
More:
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-03-06/activists-urge-human-rights-court-to-condemn-el-salvadors-abortion-ban
