Abortion case fuels hopes for expanded access

Human rights activists in Latin America hope a historic court hearing over the case of a Salvadorian woman who was denied an abortion despite her high-risk pregnancy could open the way for the country to decriminalise abortions – and set a precedent across the region.

The inter-American court of human rights last week considered the case of the woman, who was prohibited from having an abortion in 2013, even though she was seriously ill and the foetus she was carrying would not have survived outside the uterus.