TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2007
Oppose Ban on Therapeutic Abortion! (Nov. 13, 2007)
Action Alert:Write to Nicaraguan government!
*For over 100 years Nicaraguan law allowed a woman to have what is called a therapeutic abortion if her life or health was in danger.
*In October 2006 the National Assembly banned therapeutic abortions under pressure from the Catholic and Evangelical Churches. The ban was retained in a September 2007 vote.
*All major medical associations in Nicaragua have opposed the ban on therapeutic abortions.
*Women's and human rights groups have united to demand a repeal of the measure.
*Human Rights Watch has documented cases where women have died because doctors were afraid to give them the proper treatment.
*Sign on to a letter to:
1) The president of Nicaragua's National Assembly asking for a repeal of the ban;
2) The Minister of Health asking her to require doctors to comply with the protocol for emergency obstetric care which would allow some grave cases to be treated;
3) And the head of the Supreme Court asking the Court to rule promptly so more women's lives will not be lost.
See letter below! To sign on, send your name and city to nicanet@afgj.org.
Deadline for sign-ons: Nov. 22, 2007
Background
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 favor 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. The members of the FSLN bench were completely silent during the debate. The two voices which led the argument in favor of saving women's lives were MRS Deputies Monica Baltodano and Victor Hugo Tinoco.
The vote came as a surprise and 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 favorable 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 gynecologist and member of the Nicaraguan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 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.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue in a few weeks.
Last year, on October 26, 2006, ten days before the 2006 presidential elections, the Assembly first 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.
With the elimination of the century-old measure allowing therapeutic abortion, women who have an abortion can be sentenced to one to two years in jail and doctors or midwives who perform abortions can be sentenced to one to three years in jail. Nicaragua joined El Salvador and Chile as the only countries in the region that made all abortions illegal.
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.
In the year that the ban has been in effect, cases of the death of women denied treatment altogether or denied treatment until it was too late have been documented. Human Rights Watch documented the following case in its recently released Over Their Dead Bodies: Denial of Access to Emergency Obstetric Care and Therapeutic Abortion in Nicaragua:
A medical doctor at a large public hospital in Managua, however, testified to one case:
“Here [at this hospital] we have had women who have died.… For example, [name withheld] came here and had an ultrasound. It was clear that she needed a therapeutic abortion. No one wanted to carry out the abortion because the fetus was still alive. The woman was here two days without treatment until she expulsed the fetus on her own. And by then she was already in septic shock and died five days later. That was in March 2007.
The Nicaraguan Health Ministry in December 2006 issued “Norms and Protocols for Treatment of
Obstetric Emergencies,” which included mandatory protocols for emergency obstetric care. These guidelines cover obstetric emergencies, including ectopic pregnancy, and if fully implemented could overcome many negative consequences of the abortion ban. However, it appears that the guidelines often are not followed because of fear of prosecution.
Act now:
Sign on (send your name and city to nicanet@afgj.org) to the letter below which will be sent to these members of the Nicaraguan government:
Ing. René Núñez, President of the National Assembly
Dra. Maritza Cuan, Minister of Health
Dr. Manuel Martinez, President of the Supreme Court
Dear __________________
As persons concerned with human rights, we would like to add our voices to those of Nicaraguan medical associations and international human rights groups in lamenting the removal from Nicaragua's legal code of the century-old measure allowing for a therapeutic abortion in cases where the life or health of the woman is in danger.
On this matter, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights wrote to Nicaragua's Minister of Foreign Affairs to emphasize that therapeutic abortion has been internationally recognized as a specialized and necessary health service for women, its ultimate purpose being to save the life of the mother when threatened during pregnancy. Also, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has recently stated in its decision concerning Karen Noelia Llantoy v. Peru that a State inflicts physical, moral and psychological suffering when it denies a woman access to therapeutic abortion, particularly in the case of a minor.
Given that women have already died in Nicaragua as a result of doctors' reluctance to perform needed abortions, we urge:
The Honorable President of the National Assembly, Ing. René Núñez, to do all in his power to achieve repeal by the legislative body of the ban on therapeutic abortion.
We also urge Dra. Maritza Cuan, Minister of Health of Nicaragua, to require doctors to comply with the protocol for emergency obstetric care which would allow some grave cases to be treated.
We also urge the Honorable Dr. Manuel Martinez, President of the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua, to ensure that the Court rules promptly on the issue of therapeutic abortion so that more women's lives will not be lost.
Sincerely,
List of names and cities
(Send your name and city to nicanet@afgj.org)
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