El Salvadorian Woman Is Dying Because She’s Been Denied The Abortion That Would Save Her Life

Tara Culp-Ressler writes at ThinkProgress: “Beatriz, a 22-year old El Salvadorian woman who is identified in the press only by her first name, is dying. She suffers from lupus, a chronic auto-immune disease that causes body’s immune system to destroy its own healthy tissue, and her condition typically worsens when she is pregnant. Since Beatriz is now about 23 weeks pregnant, her doctors say she is at ‘high risk of death’ if she continues to carry the fetus — which has no chance of surviving, because several ultrasounds have revealed that it’s missing a big part of its brain and skull. If the deeply conservative El Salvadorian government has its way, however, neither Beatriz nor her baby will survive.”