Heathe Luz McNaughton ^1*, Ellen M.H. Mitchell ², Emilia G. Hernandez ³, Karen Padilla ⁴, Marta Maria Blandon ⁴

¹ School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
² Ipas, Chapel Hill NC
³ Hospital Primero de Mayo, San Salvador, El Salvador
⁴ Ipas Central America, Managua Nicaragua

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mcnaught{at}email.unc.edu.

	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 describe from legal records 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.

Key Words: Abortion, Global Health, Health Law, Access to Care, Human Rights, Public Health Workers