Human rights court begins review of high-stakes El Salvador abortion case

Delmy, the mother of a woman known only as Beatriz, speaks during a session of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) where she is calling to condemn El Salvador in a case brought a decade ago by her daughter, who in 2013 was forced to carry a pregnancy although the fetus could not survive, in San Jose, Costa Rica March 22, 2023. Beatriz' health deteriorated and she died four years later, aged 26. REUTERS/Mayela Lopez

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Wednesday began hearing the historic case of a Salvadoran woman who was denied an abortion in 2013 despite doctors' calls to terminate her high-risk pregnancy.

The case of the woman, a domestic worker known only as Beatriz, became a symbol of El Salvador's blanket ban on abortion, which punishes with prison time those who undergo the procedure and those who perform or assist in it.