Nicaragua Eliminates
Last Exception
to Strict
Anti-Abortion Law
By JAMES C. McKINLEY
Jr., NYTimes on the Web, November 23, 2006
MEXICO CITY, Nov. 19 — Hopes
among women’s groups in Nicaragua that President Enrique Bolaños would stop one
of the most restrictive abortion laws in Latin America from taking effect have
been dashed, as the president signed it into law late Friday.
Abortion has been illegal in Nicaragua for more than a century, and most women
who decide to end unwanted pregnancies seek procedures at underground clinics.
But the new law strikes out a clause that made it possible for a woman to obtain
an abortion legally when three doctors certified that unless she did, her own
life would be in danger.
For months, the proposed law has drawn fierce criticism from several local
women’s groups, the country’s association of gynecologists, the United Nations,
the World Health Organization and Human Rights Watch, among others.
“This is a throwback to the Middle Ages for women’s rights,” Juana Jiménez, the
leader of the Women’s Autonomous Movement in Nicaragua, said after the law was
passed.
The law was the fruit of the recent presidential election, as conservatives saw
a chance to gain its passage in Parliament during the election season.
The country is 85 percent Roman Catholic, with most other voters belonging to
conservative evangelical churches. Four of the five presidential
candidates supported it.
Daniel Ortega, the former Marxist who was president from 1985 to 1990 and the
leader of the Sandinista Party, abandoned his ideological roots and supported
passage of the law in an effort to gain support from the Roman Catholic Church
in his campaign to regain the presidency. He narrowly won the election, on
Nov. 5, with about 38 percent of the vote.
The support of the Sandinistas in the National Assembly was critical, because
they had blocked similar measures in the past. The bill passed on Oct. 26.
Some opponents to the law had hoped Mr. Bolaños, a conservative, would not sign
the bill because it did not include the stiffer sentences he had wanted for
women who had had illegal abortions, or for those who had performed abortions.
The six-year prison term remains unchanged under the law. The president
had asked for a 30-year prison term.
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