Ipas applauds the decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) to recognize abortion as a human right, in a case centered around Beatriz, a young woman whose pregnancy threatened her health and life. This historic ruling against the government of El Salvador highlights how the criminalization of abortion is a severe—and potentially life-threatening—rights violation.
The ruling could open the way for El Salvador to decriminalize abortion. It could also set a significant international human rights law precedent across the Caribbean, South and Central America, where abortion is severely restricted in seven countries.
“This is a momentous occasion not only for human rights but for women in El Salvador and other Latin American countries where abortion is restricted,” says Dr. Guillermo Ortiz, an OB-GYN and senior medical advisor at Ipas. “El Salvador must make amends for the past. What happened to Beatriz should not happen again.”
El Salvador’s abortion ban violates human rights
Ortiz, practiced for more than 20 years under El Salvador’s total abortion ban and has experienced the ban’s harmful impact on women’s lives and health—driving him to become a champion for abortion rights. He was head of the obstetric department at the national hospital when Beatriz, a young woman with lupus, came under his care. Despite having life-threatening medical conditions, Beatriz was denied an abortion by El Salvador’s Supreme Court. She was finally granted an emergency C-section after falling gravely ill. The fetus died five hours later.
“Beatriz needed to have an abortion to save her life but, because of the criminalization laws, I could not provide my patient with the health care she needed,” says Ortiz. “Abortion bans cause great suffering. Laws should protect the health and lives of women, especially the most vulnerable,” says Ortiz. “The denial of any health-care service—including abortion—is a violation of human rights.”
Not only does the ruling bring justice for Beatriz, it recognizes that no woman should have to suffer as she did, and holds the government of El Salvador responsible for preventing the criminal prosecution of women when they are suffering obstetric emergencies.