General

El Salvadoran woman wins right to terminate pregnancy in anti-abortion country

An El Salvadoran woman, known to the world only by the name “Beatriz,” has won the right to terminate a pregnancy in Central America’s most anti-abortion country—sort of.

Beatriz, who has been told that she could die if she has her baby and that the fetus cannot survive after it is born, took her fi ght against the country’s abortion ban all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled against her.

The country’s health minister, Maria Isabel Rodriguez, promptly found a loophole, declaring that Beatriz could have a Caesarian section to end the pregnancy early. “This is not an abortion,” Rodriguez said, explaining the apparent flip-flop. “It is an induced birth, which is something else.”

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