Total abortion ban in Dominican Republic has cost women's lives, social media campaign warns

Artists and activists are telling the stories of women and mothers who've died from high-risk pregnancies, and push for changes to the recently passed penal code that keeps the ban in place.

With a birthday cake in hand, well-known Dominican Republic comedian Carlos Sánchez recounted in an Instagram post how 25-year-old Winifer Núñez Beato died in 2021 after doctors on the island refused to end her high-risk pregnancy because of the country’s total abortion ban.

Núñez Beato left behind a husband and a young daughter. In the video, Sánchez said the cake is not for his birthday, but rather to mark another year where he’s asking for women not to die because of a law that stops doctors from saving their lives.

Sánchez told NBC News he felt compelled to use his platform to raise awareness because “it’s a barbarity that in this day and age a mother has to put her life at risk over a risky pregnancy that could be ended but the law prohibits doctors to do so.”

Sánchez is among many artists and activists in the Dominican Republic taking part in a social media campaign to push for amending a recently passed penal code that maintains a complete ban on abortion. Many artists have used their platforms to tell the stories of Dominican women who have lost their lives to pregnancy-related conditions.

On Instagram, singer and actress Techy Fatule tells the story of Damaris Mejia, who went to three different hospitals when she started feeling ill and had a high fever. According to Fatule, medical personnel didn’t know what to do with Mejia’s high-risk pregnancy. She was sent home with painkillers and died that night. Fatule says doctors couldn’t save her because of the ban, and ends with words, “Life is full of exceptions.”