Bukele's Party Will Not Allow Legal Abortion in El Salvador

Legislative Assembly President Ernesto Castro said that abortion should not be decriminalized as long as President Nayib Bukele's "New Ideas" party has the majority.

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"Let it be completely clear: as long as New Ideas are in the majority in the Legislative Assembly, there is not the slightest possibility that abortion be legalized in El Salvador. We defend life above all else," he tweeted.

"We will always respect the Constitution and not what some foreign organizations try to impose on us," Bukele's former secretary added.

These statements came shortly before the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) set up a hearing in the case of Beatriz, a woman who was denied termination of pregnancy despite the fact that her life was in danger and the fetus had no brain.

According to the lawsuit against the Salvadorian State, Beatriz was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, lupus nephropathy, and rheumatoid arthritis.

A 2013 medical report considered her pregnancy to be high risk and doctors later diagnosed the fetus as anencephalic and incompatible with extrauterine life.

Beatriz's lawyers filed a claim before the Supreme Justice Court requesting that the termination of the pregnancy be authorized. On May 28, 2013, however, the Constitutional Chamber declared the claim "inadmissible".

Currently, in El Salvador, women who suffer pregnancy complications that result in miscarriages are routinely prosecuted on charges of aggravated homicide.