Historic March in Costa Rica as Protesters Oppose Latin America’s Abortion Regulation:

Hundreds of Costa Ricans marched this Sunday in opposition to abortion and went to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), where a case against El Salvador is being heard about a woman who was denied the right to continue her pregnancy despite her life are in danger.

The demonstrators, mostly dressed in light blue and singing Christian hymns, marched a kilometer from a park to the Court’s headquarters in San José, which is the “Beatriz vs. El Salvadorsince March last year – the first case she has investigated on abortion in Latin America.

“The consequences would be dire if the Inter-American Court were to rule in favor of abortion,” Congressman Fabricio Alvarado of the conservative New Republic party said during the protest.

The congressman argued that if the justices ruled against the Salvadoran state, they would be “telling” the countries that recognize the Court that they are “obligated” to take steps to “legalize” abortion. Despite Alvarado’s statement, experts explained in 2023 that a ruling against El Salvador would not necessarily mean changing abortion laws in that country or in other countries in Latin America.

“Terminating a pregnancy is murder” and “Abortion due to disability is cruelty,” read the signs held by protesters, many of whom were from Catholic groups. Beatriz, whose real name is unknown, was diagnosed in 2013 with systemic lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease. She was subsequently denied an abortion, despite the risk to her health and the fact that the fetus had anencephaly, a condition in which the brain does not develop during pregnancy.

The authorities denied her the abortion, despite the non-viability of the fetus. Eighty-one days later, doctors finally performed a cesarean section, but the baby died five hours after birth. Beatriz died in a traffic accident in 2017, and last year IACHR held hearings about the case against El Salvador, a country with some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world.

Salvadoran courts typically classify abortion as aggravated murder, resulting in sentences of 30 to 50 years in prison. “We are here (…) for those who cannot defend themselves, who are defenseless there in their womb,” 65-year-old Ronald Pérez, a motorcyclist and member of the group Fighters for Christ, added during the protest.

In Latin America, abortion is legal in Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Uruguay and some states in Mexico. In Chile it is illegal except in cases of risk to the health of the mother, rape or deformity of the fetus. It is completely banned in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.