Amnesty International has called on Nicaragua to repeal a law introduced last year criminalising abortion in all circumstances.

31/07/2009 - BBC NewsOnline, 28 July 2009


After a fact-finding mission, Amnesty says in its report that the total ban on abortion "marks a grave departure from the government's commitment to improving social equality and has severe consequences for the protection of human rights for women and girls".
Amnesty points out that the ban allows no exceptions - even when continuing a pregnancy risks the life or health of the woman or girl or when the pregnancy is the result of rape.
Women have no right to decide for themselves. The lives of women are secondary
The Nicaraguan health ministry, contacted by the BBC, had no comment on Amnesty's report but the government has previously said that it is committed to reducing maternal mortality.
Accurate statistics of the impact of the ban in terms of avoidable deaths are hard to come by. One doctor said that of 95 women who died last year as a result of medical complications with their pregnancies, 13 could have been saved if they had been able to have therapeutic abortions.
And the difficulties now facing medical staff are very real, says Dr Andres Herrera Rodriguez of the University of Leon in Nicaragua.
"Now you can't even teach about abortion because it would be dangerous. You need to be very careful because the law says you can be put in jail if someone says you are promoting abortion," he says.
"We need to be able to deal with people who have been sexually abused," he says.
"If a woman's life is at risk you need to do something to make sure she doesn't die. Our back is to the wall, I would say."
Most Nicaraguans are Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church was a key backer of the ban - arguing that abortion meant murder, even when mothers' wellbeing was in jeopardy.
And the Church and practically every parliamentarian agreed that the term "therapeutic" was being over-used to cover a wide range of terminations that were not actually medically justified.
Amnesty says officials have sent out private signals that doctors should continue to abide by their own medical code.
Nonetheless, Amnesty maintains that the total ban has "a chilling effect on the ability of medical professionals and health workers to provide medically indicated treatment".
One woman told us about her sister's ectopic pregnancy - discovered three weeks after the ban went into effect.
"We were very afraid. But she was able to have an abortion. Fortunately some doctors still act on medical principles."
It is indeed clear that, despite the ban, there are still some abortions taking place. A 22-year-old woman told us what happened when she recently wanted an abortion.
"I talked to a doctor and she indicated that there was a way to do it in your home using some medicine," she said.
"I was between two places - my future and the risk of going to jail. But I own my body."
Amnesty argues in its report that the effects of the new law are most marked among women and girls living in poverty.
Each day at the Ixchen women's centre in Managua the seats around the open courtyard, where people wait to be seen, are filled with many women enduring hardship - in making ends meet and often in their relationships too.
The centre's director, Maria Lourdes, says the total ban on abortion is a big problem and she sees it as an expression of the weakness in the human rights system in Nicaragua.
"Women have no right to decide for themselves," she says.
"The lives of women are secondary."


Link of Interest:



Recommend

Post a comment