International court rules against El Salvador in key abortion rights case
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights just set a new floor for reproductive rights across Latin America, ruling that El Salvador violated a young woman’s fundamental rights by denying her a life-saving abortion in 2013. Beatriz was 22, gravely ill with lupus and kidney damage, and carrying a fetus that could not survive outside the womb — yet the country’s total ban forced her into an emergency C-section instead of care. The court has now ordered El Salvador to allow abortions when a woman’s life or health is at risk. Six other Latin American countries still ban abortion outright, and advocates say Beatriz’s name now anchors a precedent they’ll carry into courts and legislatures across the hemisphere.
