Rights, Safety Of Nicaraguan Women Took 'Giant Step Backward' With Passage Of Abortion Ban, Editorial Says

The "rights and safety of Nicaragua's women took a giant step backward" last week when the country's Legislature passed a bill that would ban abortion in all cases, a New York Times editorial says (New York Times, 10/29). Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional, the national Legislature, on Thursday voted 52-0 with nine abstentions and 29 not present to pass the bill, and Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos is expected to sign the measure into law. If Bolanos signs the measure, it would eliminate a century-old exception to the country's abortion ban allowing procedures in which three physicians certify a woman's health is at risk. The country's current abortion ban also allows legal medical abortions in cases of rape or when a woman's life is at risk (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 10/27). The new abortion ban is a "clear bid to curry support from the Catholic Church" before the presidential elections next week, the editorial says, concluding that the "only good news out of Nicaragua" last week was that lawmakers "declined to take up a proposal that would drastically increase prison sentences for women who have abortions and people who perform them" (New York Times, 10/29).

PRI's "The World" -- a production of BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston -- on Friday included an interview with Carlos Chamorro, a Nicaraguan journalist, about the country's new law (Bader, "The World," PRI, 10/27). The complete segment is available online in Windows Media.

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