Beatriz Case and abortion in Latin America: The Inter-American Court already has a ruling

According to the Global Center for Human Rights, this Friday, December 20, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court) will announce its ruling on the “Beatriz case”, which could impose abortion in Latin America.

1. What is the Beatriz case?

“The Beatriz case is a false case, a case created by the abortion industry and financed by that industry with the sole and exclusive purpose of imposing abortion in El Salvador but also in all of Latin America,” explains Neydy Casillas, vice president of International Affairs. of the Global Center for Human Rights, in statements to ACI Prensa this Thursday.

The Beatriz case, which the Inter-American Court heard in the hearing held in the second half of November in San José, Costa Ricarefers to a low-income woman in El Salvador who gave birth in 2013 to a baby with anencephaly. The baby died a few hours after being born.

Beatriz, through the lawyers of the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, asked the Salvadoran State to allow her to have an abortion due to lupus, an autoimmune disease she suffered, and the anencephaly of her baby, whom she named Leilani Beatriz.

In April 2022, the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion of El Salvador, Ipas Central America and Mexico (Ipas CAM), and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) filed a lawsuit to declare El Salvador responsible for several violations of Beatriz’s rights.

2. What have pro-abortion groups asked for in the last hearing?

Casillas told ACI Prensa on December 19 that “the request made by the abortion groups during the hearing was that abortion be declared a right and that conscientious objection be prohibited.”

They have also requested that abortion be “requested for girls, even minors, and women without parental authorization, or even any other evidence. “They are requesting that abortion be on demand.”

“That is what is at risk. “That is the great importance of this case,” he warned.

3. The lies of the Beatriz case

Salvadoran leader Julia Regina de Cardenal explained in March 2023 several of the lies in the case, such as that her pregnancy was not viable due to lupus and the “chronic kidney failure” that pro-abortion groups say Beatriz suffered from.

The doctors who treated the mother in the hospital “clarified that Beatriz had inactive lupus without complications, that the claim of chronic kidney failure was false and the baby was diagnosed with anencephaly, but that Beatriz’s life was never in danger.”

“These interested pro-abortion groups began to manipulate Beatriz, deceiving her and causing her unnecessary anxiety. The National Bioethics Committee, which was made up of people without knowledge of these cases and which, in addition, had abortion promoters as members, was also used with the lie that if I did not abort, I would die,” the pro-life leader indicated then.

“I spoke with Beatriz on several occasions and she told me, distressed, that these groups and that even the former Minister of Health (María Isabel Rodríguez) insistently assured her that she was going to die if they did not cause her to have an abortion,” she lamented.

“Beatriz was an outpatient because she was stable and monitored. There was no need to intervene or admit her to the hospital. At 26 weeks of gestation, her doctors decided to perform a cesarean section, an ethical, legal and safe procedure in order to protect her health and the lives of both patients,” he continued.

“Her baby, Leilani, was born alive and whole, not in pieces. She was hugged and loved by her mother, although she died hours later,” he stressed.

“Beatriz had no health complications after the cesarean section. Beatriz even visited Leilani’s grave constantly. The doctors did the right thing and showed that there was no need to abort,” the leader highlighted.

“Her death, 4 years later, was due to a motorcycle accident. It is absurd that they intend to continue using her until after her death, saying that she died because they did not allow her to have an abortion,” denounced the president of the Yes to Life Foundation.

4. Conflict of interest in the Beatriz case

Neydy Casillas explained to ACI Prensa that “unfortunately there is a great conflict of interest where countries outside the inter-American human rights system are giving almost 90 million dollars to both the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Commission.”

“This means that they are financing the prosecutor, which is the Commission, they are financing the judges, which is the Court, and they are also financing the parties, which are these abortion groups,” he warned.

5. Danger to democracy

Casillas also indicated that “whatever the ruling, especially if it is a negative ruling, the only thing it will denote and demonstrate is that the Inter-American Court and the Inter-American System in reality is not a serious system, it is not a legal, but an activist system, a system paid for by the abortion industry.”

The pro-life leader also highlighted that, in her opinion, it is “a system that simply serves as an instrument for those countries that have a particular interest in certain agendas and that are going to pay for it and use this system to impose and change our laws, silencing to the people, silencing our legislators.”

In this way, he concluded, they put an end to “the democracy that they boast so much about defending.”

The 40 Days for Life El Salvador platform has called for this Friday, December 20, a day of prayer for each of the judges before the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the Beatriz case.