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Patient privacy and conflicting legal and ethical obligations in El Salvador: Reporting of unlawful abortions

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  • McNaughton, H.L.
  • Mitchell, E.M.H.
  • Hemandez, E.G.
  • Padilla, K.
  • Blandon, M.M.

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • McNaughton, H.L. & Mitchell, E.M.H. & Hemandez, E.G. & Padilla, K. & Blandon, M.M., 2006. "Patient privacy and conflicting legal and ethical obligations in El Salvador: Reporting of unlawful abortions," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(11), pages 1927-1933.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2005.071720_1
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.071720
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    Cited by:

    1. Ramm, Alejandra & Casas, Lidia & Correa, Sara & Baba, C. Finley & Biggs, M. Antonia, 2020. "“Obviously there is a conflict between confidentiality and what you are required to do by law”: Chilean university faculty and student perspectives on reporting unlawful abortions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    2. Suh, Siri, 2014. "Rewriting abortion: Deploying medical records in jurisdictional negotiation over a forbidden practice in Senegal," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 20-33.

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