Abortion Rights in Nicaragua
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Still from the documentary
'Rosita' in which a nine year old Nicaraguan becomes pregnant as a
result of rape, triggering a battle over whose life is more important.
www.bullfrogfilms.com
Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Statement on Nicaragua’s ban
on abortion when the life or health of a woman is threatened (therapeutic
abortion) March 2008
We would welcome any comments by
email >>
Background
For 130 years Nicaraguan law allowed a woman to have an abortion when her
life or health was in danger from the pregnancy.
In October 2006, one month before the elections that brought the Frente
Sandinista (FSLN) back into power, the National Assembly banned such
abortions under pressure from the Catholic and Evangelical Churches. The ban
was retained in a September 2007 vote on the penal code. According to the
legislation anyone who performs an abortion where the life or health of the
woman is threatened would face one to three years in prison and any woman
who requests an abortion one to two years.
Chile, El Salvador and the Vatican are the only other states in the world
where such abortions are a criminal offence.
In Nicaragua all major medical associations, women’s and human rights groups
have opposed the ban and called for it to be repealed.
As documented by Human Rights Watch (2 October 2007) there are cases where
women have died because doctors were afraid to terminate their pregnancies.
The legislation has also created fear and misunderstanding; some women are
frightened to get treatment for any complication (such as severe bleeding)
during pregnancy or postnatally, in case they are accused of having induced
an abortion or having tried to.
As a result of intense pressure nationally and internationally the
Nicaraguan Ministry of Health has issued guidelines covering obstetric
emergencies where abortion is permitted when a women’s life is at risk, for
example with an ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy developing outside the womb).
However, because of the climate of fear created by this legislation and the
wide-spread belief that abortion is not allowed even if the woman’s life is
at risk, women’s right to life and health will remain under threat until
this legislation is repealed.
Further information:
www.hrw.org/americas
www.movimientoautonomodemujeres.org
www.cawn.org
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Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign’s (NSC) statement
The NSC is totally opposed to this ban because it infringes the human
rights of women to life and health.
NSC has been working with Nicaragua since 1978. We work in solidarity with
community-based organisations working for social and economic justice. We
are not affiliated to the FSLN nor do we have any legal ties or a direct
relationship with it. However, we do work with the women’s movement and
cooperatives some of whom are allied to the FSLN. We appreciate the dilemma
that this creates for many of our members including for ourselves as the NSC
Board of Trustees. However we feel that the penalisation of abortion when
the life or health a woman is threatened is a deeply retrograde step as far
as creating social justice is concerned.
What action has NSC taken?
In addition to raising our concerns through writing letters and articles we
have taken the following actions:
In the lead up to the November 2006 elections we circulated an urgent action
to members and supporters calling for letters of protest to be sent to all
political parties and the National Assembly urging a vote against the
proposed legislation.
In November 2007 we urged our members and supporters to sign up to a
Nicaragua Network letter to the President of the National Assembly, the
Minister of Health and the President of the Supreme Court calling on them to
repeal the law.
We will continue working closely with Nicaraguan and other international
organisations who are campaigning and lobbying to ensure that this
profoundly unjust legislation is repealed as soon as possible.
Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Board of Trustees 15 March 2008
You can watch the recent Channel 4 documentary on
abortion in Nicaragua through these links:
Finally, more detailed information on the vote of Sept 13
2007 and the events of October 26 2007:
By a vote of 66-3, on Sept. 13, 2007, the National Assembly defeated an
amendment to the Penal Code which would have decriminalized therapeutic
abortion (criminalized in 2006 after over 100 years of legality) if three
medical specialists agreed it was necessary to save the life of the mother.
Only the three deputies of the Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) voted in
favour of saving the life of the mother. Twenty-seven Sandinista deputies
voted with the right-wing parties while 11 stayed away from the proceedings.
During the debate, human and women's rights protesters shouted so loudly
that it was difficult to hear the deputies. Constitutional Liberal Party
(PLC) Deputies Wilfredo Navarro and Freddy Torres described the protesters
as lesbians and murderers. Members of the FSLN bench were completely silent
during the debate. The two voices who led the argument in favour of saving
women's lives were MRS Deputies Monica Baltodano and Victor Hugo Tinoco.
The vote came as a great disappointment to women's rights activists and
medical associations which had been consulted by the National Assembly
Justice Committee. A week prior to the debate in the legislative branch, the
Justice Committee issued a favourable report on the amendment. A list of
medical circumstances, including ectopic pregnancy [where the embryo
develops outside the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes], under which a
therapeutic abortion would be permitted, was issued by the Committee. But
the full Assembly did not listen when it came time to vote.
Ligia Altamirano, a gynaecologist and member of the Nicaraguan Association
of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said that this legislature's decision will
"deepen the chaos within the health service [where] doctors have doubts
about whether to treat" women with complications relating to
their pregnancies. "There are over 20 medical associations within
Nicaragua which have stated opposition to the abortion ban" said
Altamirano, "but [the deputies] didn't listen." Doctor Leonel
Argüello, member of one of the medical associations which was consulted by
the Justice Committee said on Sept. 13, "Today, the death penalty has
been reintroduced in Nicaragua." According to Argüello, an average of
1,000 women a year will die as a result of the abortion ban.
Ana Maria Pizarro, representative of the Autonomous Women's Movement, said
the FSLN deputies have "betrayed the memory of Carlos Fonseca and Carlos
Nuñez Tellez who fought for a secular state and for women's rights."
Over twenty women's rights groups announced plans to carry out
national and international protest campaigns with the aim of forcing the
reintroduction of therapeutic abortion in Nicaragua.
According to Justice Committee chair Jose Pallais the Catholic Church
hierarchy had approved the committee's list of medical circumstances under
which a therapeutic abortion should be permitted. In public, however, no
church representative confirmed this approval while Bishop of Esteli
Abelardo Mata had publicly called on the deputies to maintain the abortion
ban.
On October 26, 2006, ten days before the 2006 presidential elections,
the Assembly approved the measure that would remove from the country's penal
code the article permitting abortion when the life or health of a woman was
in danger. The action was in answer to demands from the Catholic Church and
some Protestant churches and was supported by three of the four major
candidates for president in the elections that were to be held on November
5th.
Passage of the measure was directly related to the presidential elections
where the Sandinista Party (FSLN) candidate Daniel Ortega (who won the
election), the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC) candidate Jose Rizo, and
the Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) candidate Eduardo Montealegre, all
supported the measure to do away with therapeutic abortion. Only the
Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) candidate Edmundo Jarquin opposed it.
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