Nicaragua's Abortion Ban Putting Women's Lives At Risk, Human Rights Watch Report Says

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 05 Oct 2007 - 9:00 PST

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Nicaragua's abortion ban is endangering women's lives because it has failed to ensure medical care is offered to women, including those with obstetric emergencies, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports (AP/International Herald Tribune, 10/2). The report said the ban has caused the death of at least 80 women since it was implemented last year (Reuters, 10/2).

Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional, the national Legislature, in October 2006 voted 52-0 with nine abstentions and 29 not present to pass a bill that bans abortion in all cases, and President Enrique Bolanos in November 2006 signed the measure into law. According to the law, women convicted of having an illegal abortion and those convicted of assisting them receive mandatory six-year prison sentences (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/10). Wendy Flores, an attorney for the Nicaraguan Human Rights Center, said she has asked the country's Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional because it puts the lives of women at risk, but she said the court so far has ignored her request.

According to HRW, the law has stopped women from seeking help for pregnancy-related complications. The report said that women and girls are afraid to seek medical care fearing "they will be accused of having induced an abortion," and physicians are unwilling to provide legal health services fearing they might be subject to prosecution under the ban. Angela Heimburger, researcher for the Americas at HRW's Women's Rights Division, said, "Some testified that personnel at public hospitals refused women and girls adequate care after devastating miscarriages, with direct reference to the ban." HRW was not able to document any cases of physicians or others who have been accused of performing abortions, but it said prosecutions appeared to be rare (AP/International Herald Tribune, 10/3).

According to an HRW release, the report shows that President Daniel Ortega's government has not studied the health effects of the ban, and the government does not appear to have investigated or sanctioned medical workers who do not implement protocols issued by the country's Ministry of Health on legal medical treatments for women (HRW release, 10/2).

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Maritza Cuan, spokesperson for the health ministry, refused to comment on the report, the AP/Tribune reports. Heimburger said, "President Ortega should immediately help mitigate the disastrous effects of this ban by prioritizing pregnant women's access to emergency medical care," adding that Ortega "needs to reassure women they will not be punished for trying to stay alive."

Leonel Arguello, president of the Nicaraguan Society of General Medicine, said that82 women have died because of pregnancy complications between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 and that six of the deaths could have been prevented (AP/International Herald Tribune, 10/3).

The report is available online.

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