Open AccessPatient Privacy and Conflicting Legal and Ethical Obligations in El Salvador: Reporting of Unlawful Abortions
Author(s) -
Heathe Luz McNaughton,
Ellen Mitchell,
Emilia G. Hernandez,
Karen Padilla,
Marta María Blandón
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2005.071720
Subject(s) - confidentiality , abortion , law , health care , patient privacy , medicine , family medicine , political science , pregnancy , biology , genetics
Postabortion care providers who breach patient confidentiality endanger women's health and violate ethics. A 1998 abortion ban in El Salvador likely spurred an increase in the number of women investigated, because many women were reported to legal authorities by health care providers. Having analyzed safeguards of confidentiality in laws and ethical guidelines, we obtained information from legal records on women prosecuted from 1998 to 2003 and identified factors that may lead to reporting through a survey of obstetrician-gynecologists (n=110). Although ethical and human rights standards oblige providers to respect patients' privacy, 80% of obstetrician-gynecologists mistakenly believed reporting was required. Most respondents (86%) knew that women delay seeking care because of fear of prosecution, yet a majority (56%) participated in notification of legal authorities.