In her fourth month of pregnancy, 18-year-old Jazmina sought emergency care at a public hospital in Managua, Nicaragua, on Oct. 31, 2006, just one week after the Nicaraguan legislature had voted to ban all abortions. Although she was feverish, bleeding and in severe pain, her doctors had no imaging technology to confirm a miscarriage — and intervening without such proof, even to save the patient’s life, could mean years of imprisonment. Thirty-six hours later, after undergoing two hospital transfers and, finally, ultrasound testing that revealed a detached placenta, Jazmina was taken to the operating room for an emergency cesarean section. But it was too late: Her uterus had already filled with blood, and she went into fatal septic shock. Several days after her simple hillside burial, Jazmina’s distraught husband reflected on the tragedy, saying: “Now I've lost not just our baby, but my whole family.”