El Salvador court denies seriously ill woman abortion

PJ_Soul

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22712756

The Supreme Court of El Salvador has refused to allow a seriously ill pregnant woman to have an abortion, even though her foetus has almost no chance of survival.

Lawyers for the young woman - who suffers from lupus and kidney failure - had argued that continuing the pregnancy would place her life at risk.

The foetus itself is missing part or all of its brain.

All abortions are prohibited in El Salvador under any circumstances.

The constitution in the majority Roman Catholic country protects the right to life "from the moment of conception".

The 22-year-old woman - referred to as "Beatriz", not her real name - is said to be in fragile health, suffering from the chronic immune disorder lupus as well as kidney failure.

Tests suggest her 26-week-old foetus is developing without a complete brain, a condition called anencephaly. Almost all babies born with this condition die before or shortly after birth.

'Absolute bar'

A medical committee at her maternity hospital, the Ministry of Health and rights groups had all supported Beatriz's request to terminate her pregnancy, but judges at the Supreme Court voted four-to-one to reject the woman's appeal.

In their ruling, the judges said: "This court determines that the rights of the mother cannot take precedence over those of the unborn child or vice versa, and that there is an absolute bar to authorising an abortion as contrary to the constitutional protection accorded to human persons 'from the moment of conception'."

The judges said that Beatriz's health was "stable", although they recognised this could change, ordering doctors to continue to monitor her health and provide all necessary treatment.

Judge Rodolfo Gonzalez, one of the four judges to rule against allowing Beatriz to have an abortion, said the constitutional court could not be turned into a "tribunal to allow the interruption of pregnancies".

Judge Gonzalez said he had not been convinced Beatriz was at risk of dying if the pregnancy was allowed to continue.

He said the case, and the great number of groups and people who had wanted to offer their opinion on it, had shown there was a need to discuss abortion more widely in El Salvador.

'Irresponsible'

Florentin Melendez was the only one of the five judges to rule in favour of Beatriz, but said this did not mean he backed abortions.

He said he believed the court should have ruled in her favour to "guarantee that the medical personnel would not omit [any treatments] and would act diligently at all times, without having to recur to legal authorisation to protect the life of the mother and the human being she is carrying in her womb".

There was no immediate response from Beatriz's lawyers to the ruling.

Campaigners for the legalisation of abortion in cases where the mother's or foetus's life are at risk have condemned the ruling.

Morena Herrera, director of a campaign group which has supported Beatriz's case, said it was "irresponsible".

She argued that the judges had failed to consider the delicate state of health of the foetus, which she said would have no chance of surviving after birth.

"The only life we can save here is that of Beatriz," she said.

Ms Herrera said the group would look into ways of moving Beatriz out of El Salvador so she could receive the treatment they said she needed.

Doctors who support a termination have argued that the risk to Beatriz's health will grow as her pregnancy advances, and that if she suffers a health crisis it will be more difficult to treat the further into her pregnancy she is.

Doctors who perform an abortion in El Salvador and the mothers who undergo it face arrest and criminal charges.


Latin America's abortion laws

Abortion is completely banned in seven countries in Latin America - El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Chile, Honduras, Haiti, Suriname
Only Cuba, Guyana, Puerto Rico and Uruguay allow abortions beyond cases of rape, incest or threats to a woman's health.
In 2012, Uruguay's congress voted narrowly to legalise abortions during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy
In Mexico, only Mexico City has legalised abortion, during the first 12 weeks
Brazil's senate is currently debating the legalisation of terminations during the first 12 weeks
The estimated annual number of abortions in Latin America increased slightly between 2003 and 2008, from 4.1 million to 4.4 million, but the rate per 1,000 women remained steady
95 percent of abortions in Latin America from 1995-2008 were considered to be unsafe
Highly restrictive abortion laws are not associated with lower abortion rates, the WHO says. For example, the 2008 abortion rate was 32 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age in Latin America. In Western Europe, where abortion is generally permitted on broad grounds, the abortion rate was 12 per 1,000

Sources: World Health Organisation, Guttmacher Institute

Religion sucks.

hedonist

I typically don't have a problem with (peaceful) religions - but to dictate in this way? To have such - or any - control over another?

Really fucked up.

And, sad to say it, but I have a feeling we're going to read about this woman dying before or during giving birth.

Perhaps "Judge" Gonzalez will then be convinced.

BinauralJam

Doesn't sound like she's gona make it one way or the other sadly.

riotgrl

I just can't believe, even in such a religious nation, that to save the life of the mother an exception cannot be made until she is in dire straits. I agree, religion sucks.

oceaninmyeyes

Sadly it seems to be becoming a trend. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/no ... lame-death

PJ_Soul

Looks like they found a way around the ruling. Good for them. Glad the woman can start moving past this ordeal. And I was glad to see the huge international reaction and involvement of Amnesty Internation in support of her situation. However, the smugness being taken up on the part of the anti-abortion group pisses me off - they are still framing this as a victory, and say it proves abortions should never be an option. :fp: (news for those idiots - that was an abortion, but MORE awful that it should have been for the fetus and the mother thanks to those assholes; my assumption is that her doctors were forced to actually induce labour and birth a live child, which had to suffer before dying just so that they could get around the bullshit ruling and save the mother's life :x ).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22763510

El Salvador abortion woman has C-section

A seriously ill woman who was denied an abortion by the Supreme Court in El Salvador has undergone a premature Caesarean section.

The 22-year-old woman, who has lupus and kidney problems, sought to end the pregnancy, which doctors said posed a serious risk to her life.

The foetus developed without a complete brain and skull and died shortly after birth.

Last week the supreme court upheld El Salvador's absolute ban on abortions.

Health Minister Maria Isabel Rodriguez said the baby had died five hours after the C-section.

Doctors decided the procedure had become necessary when the woman started having contractions on Sunday night, Ms Rodriguez said.

She insisted that the medical intervention did not contravene the court ruling.

Under the ruling, she said, "mother had to be given all the necessary protection to save her life, while analysing how long one could wait and do the utmost to save the baby's life".

It is not clear how far advanced exactly the pregnancy was, with local sources saying the woman was 24 weeks pregnant, while Reuters news agency said she was 27 weeks pregnant and Agence France Press agency reporting she had the C-section after 26 weeks of gestation.

'Extreme measures'

The woman, referred to as "Beatriz", is now in a stable condition in intensive care.

Her plight had drawn international attention after the Supreme Court denied her the abortion she was seeking despite the medical risks involved in the pregnancy and the low chances of the foetus surviving beyond birth.

A medical committee at her maternity hospital, the Ministry of Health and rights groups had supported her request to terminate her pregnancy.

But the Supreme Court argued that the "the rights of the mother cannot take precedence over those of the unborn child or vice versa, and that there is an absolute bar to authorising an abortion" under the Salvadoran constitution.

El Salvador banned all types of abortion in 1999. The sentence for doctors and women violating that ban is 50 years in prison.

A non-binding resolution by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights last week called on the Salvadoran authorities to take action to save Beatriz's life.

"This pregnancy is a risk to her life, a fact that merits extreme and urgent measures to be taken to safeguard her health," the regional court based in San Jose, Costa Rica, said.

Women's rights groups in El Salvador have welcomed the decision by the country's health ministry to allow the C-section but have condemned the long wait Beatriz had to endure, which they say inflicted "unnecessary suffering".

Spokeswoman for the anti-abortion group Red Familia Claudia Handal also welcomed the outcome.

"We're happy because as we said from the beginning, it wasn't necessary to perform an abortion, the point was to respect the baby's life and to give Beatriz the care and the right to health that she deserved," she told Reuters news agency.