SAN JOSE/SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – El Salvador violated a woman's rights after barring her from an abortion in 2013 despite doctors' calls for her to end her high-risk pregnancy, the U.S. Court of Human Rights said on Friday.
The case of the woman, a domestic worker known as Beatriz, became a symbol of El Salvador's ban on abortion, which punishes with imprisonment those who follow the procedure and those who carry it out or assist in it.
The court's decision found that the Salvadoran state “is nationally responsible for failing to fulfill its duty of due diligence in ensuring the rights to effective judicial remedies, personal integrity, health and privacy” for Beatriz, the court said in a statement.
Doctors diagnosed Beatriz, who had lupus and other illnesses, with her second high-risk pregnancy in February 2013, and said the baby would not survive the pregnancy.
They recommended abortion but did not perform that treatment as El Salvador strictly prohibited them.