This is the culture of life that abortion foes are trying to protect? On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of El Salvador upheld, by a 4 – 1 vote, its strict ban on abortion, refusing to allow a 22-year-old woman to end her pregnancy. That woman, and her baby, are likely now going to die.

The woman, known only as Beatriz, is 26 weeks pregnant and has been suffering from lupus and kidney problems, which have worsened as her fetus has grown. The baby, meanwhile, has anencephaly—a developmental disorder in which parts of the brain and skull are missing. In affirming its decision, the court declared that “the rights of the mother cannot be privileged over those” of the fetus. One of Beatriz’s lawyers, VÃ­ctor Hugo Mata, said: “The court placed the life of the anencephalic baby over Beatriz’s life. Justice here does not respect the rights of women.”

El Salvador is far from the only place in the world where a fetus – even a non-viable one – takes precedence over the health and life of a woman. In Ireland right now, new obstetric emergency procedures are being implemented and new laws protecting the lives of mothers are finally being debated, following the brutal death of of Savita Halappanavar and her baby in a Galway hospital last fall. Amnesty International this month called Ireland’s strict current abortion policy “out of line with international human rights standards.”

It goes on, across the globe. Last summer, a pregnant Dominican teenager with leukemia died after being forced to delay chemotherapy by hospital officials who feared it would compromise her pregnancy. Abortion is illegal in the Dominican Republic. When she was finally permitted chemo, she miscarried, and soon after went into cardiac arrest.

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