A Peruvian woman, who was informed 14 weeks into her pregnancy in 2001 that she was carrying a foetus with anencephaly, has been awarded compensation after a hospital director refused her request for an abortion.

The woman, who was 17 at the time of her pregnancy, was dealt a devastating blow when she learned of the foetus' diagnosis, and is understood to have requested a termination on the grounds that the condition is typically considered fatal.

Despite the fact abortion is legal in Peru, the young woman known as K.L was forced to continue her pregnancy - a journey which her own mother dubbed "an extended funeral" - and tragically lost her child at four-days-old, before ultimately filing a complaint with the United Nations Human Rights Committee against the Peruvian government in 2002.

Four years after the child's death, the Committee concluded in a landmark case that Peru had violated a number of articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
 


Fifteen years after the harrowing event, the woman at the centre of the case was awarded compensation on account of Peru's “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” thereby marking the first time a United Nations Committee has acknowledged a country's accountability for failing to ensure a woman's access to safe, legal abortion.

Commenting on her client's case while speaking to the Centre for Reproductive Rights, attorney, Lilian Sepúlveda, asserted: "It was a huge step toward justice for K.L. and a landmark decision for the UN."

It is understood that K.L's case ignited further investigation, with lawyers filing and winning another case against Peru pertaining to yet another teenage mother who was denied a medically indicated abortion,

According to The Huffington Post, the legal proceedings resulted in the country's adoption of national guidelines for safe abortions services which were implemented to provide clarity to both women and health care professionals alike.

Reflecting on the impact her client's case will have, Ms. Sepúlveda asserted: "In seeing justice delivered in K.L.'s case — watching it go from A to Z — we are part of an inspiring historic moment."

"We are witnessing the results of advocates' dedicated perseverance and the power of the UN and other international bodies to ensure our basic human rights to dignity, health and freedom from ill-treatment," she finished.

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