SBA List and Charlotte Lozier Institute Join Coalition Defending Life in El Salvador

On February 22, Susan B. Anthony List and Charlotte Lozier Institute were pleased to join in an amicus brief filed alongside 26 other organizations in a major case pending before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica.  The brief was filed in the case Manuela and Family v. El Salvador.  The case involves an attempt by abortion advocacy organizations in the United States to secure a ruling from the Court that El Salvador violated international human rights law by prosecuting a woman charged with infanticide.  The brief summarizes the extensive international treaties and case law  protecting the lives of newborn infants as well as the right to life of the developing child from conception.

Amici argue that these laws do not require parties to these treaties to treat acts of infanticide with impunity.  They further argue that the case could result in deterring physicians from reporting instances of infanticide and even “impose penalties on those who report the suspected homicide of a newborn child in El Salvador.”  The brief points out that the litigation is a step toward compelling the legalization of abortion in El Salvador, where abortion is against the law and the express language of the American Convention on Human Rights and other agreements.  The plaintiffs in the case include the Center for Reproductive Rights, its affiliate in El Salvador, and the Feminist Collective for Local Development of El Salvador.

The full text of the brief, prepared by Prof. Ligia DeJesus Castaldi of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, can be accessed here.