In the Belly of the Beast: The Struggle for Abortion Rights and Reproductive Freedom in El Salvador

Karen Cho's capstone project conducted an analysis of a pending case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights concerning a woman--under the pseudonym Beatriz--who sought to undertake an abortion in her home country of El Salvador. El Salvador currently institutes one of the most draconian abortion bans in the world, preventing abortion under all circumstances. Karen's essay takes an extensive look at the comparative law of abortion access and reproductive rights in other countries in the Latin American region and beyond. Ultimately, it urges the Inter-American Court to rule in favor of Beatriz and to condemn El Salvador's total abortion ban, a position that would be buttressed both by the text of El Salvador's Constitution as well as the human rights principles that firmly undergird the trajectory of global reform in abortion access.