IACtHR ruling: Beatriz v. El Salvador

March 11, 2025:

Many thanks to Dana Repka, an LL.M. student and International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, who kindly provided the following overview of this important decision.

In the case of Beatriz vs. El Salvador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) held El Salvador responsible for obstetric violence and for violating Beatriz’s right to health after she was denied access to an abortion, despite carrying a non-viable fetus and enduring a pregnancy that endangered her life. Although the majority opinion did not explicitly address the denial of abortion, this ruling marks the first time the IACHR has decided a case of this nature in Latin America, setting a precedent for countries that are parties to the American Convention on Human Rights.

The concurring and partially dissenting opinion of Judge Humberto Antonio Sierra Porto (online here in English) is particularly significant, as it builds on the Court’s jurisprudence on sexual and reproductive health and affirms that the absolute criminalization of abortion, which remains in place in El Salvador, even in cases where the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life or health or where the fetus is non-viable outside the womb, is incompatible with the American Convention. As the judge explains, such an absolute prohibition prioritizes the fetus over all of the pregnant woman’s rights, effectively nullifying them.

RELATED RESOURCES:

Beatriz et al. v. El Salvador. Inter-American Court of Human Rights (ser. C) No. 549 (November 22, 2024).
Decision in Spanish (105 pages). Official abstract in Spanish. Press Release in Spanish.
Official Press Release in English.
Abstract in English-unofficial translation.
Voto Concurrente y Parcialmente Disidente.
Unofficial translation of Excerpt: Concurring/Dissenting Opinion of Judge Sierra Porta.

“Physicians’ Challenges under El Salvador’s Criminal Abortion Prohibition,” by Alyson Zureick, Amber Khan, Angeline Chen and Astrid Reyes. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 143.1 (Oct. 2018):121–126. PDF at Wiley online.

Earlier decisions, by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of El Salvador are available through our Abortion Law Decisions webpage online here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Contributed by: The International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program, reprohealth*law at utoronto.ca. See Program website for our Publications, Research resources, and Reprohealthlaw Commentaries Series. TO JOIN THE REPROHEALTHLAW BLOG: enter your email address in the upper right corner of this blog, then check your email to confirm the subscription.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2025 at 9:03 am and is filed under Countries, Courts, Decisions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source link

tags

Abkhazia Afghanistan Africa Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curacao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Northern Cyprus Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Transnistria Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda UK Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uruguay USA Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe