Some Doctors, Women's Rights Advocates Say Nicaraguan Abortion Ban Caused Death Of Pregnant Woman

Some women's rights advocates and doctors' groups in Nicaragua have said that changes to the country's abortion ban approved earlier this month caused the death of a pregnant woman, the Washington Post reports (Aizenman, Washington Post, 11/28). Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional, the national Legislature, in October voted 52-0 with nine abstentions and 29 not present to pass a bill that bans abortion in all cases, and President Enrique Bolanos earlier this month signed the measure into law. Under the law, women convicted of having an illegal abortion and those convicted of assisting them receive mandatory six-year prison sentences. The law eliminates exceptions to the country's abortion ban allowing procedures in cases of rape or when three physicians certify a woman's health is at risk. According to the reproductive rights group Ipas, 24 legal abortions have been preformed in the country in the last three years, and about 32,000 illegal abortions are preformed annually. Oscar Flores Mejia of Nicaragua's National Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said that many doctors who are fearful of prosecution under the ban will not save the lives of women who have ectopic pregnancies, preeclampsia, cardiac problems or other complications unless they can guarantee the fetus would survive (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 11/27).

Pregnant Woman's Death, Reaction
Jazmina Bojorge, who was almost five months pregnant at the time of her death, earlier this month arrived at the Fernando Velez Paiz Hospital in Managua, Nicaragua, with a fever and abdominal pains. Both Bojorge and the fetus died 36 hours later. The "mystery of what happened during the intervening 36 hours might not ordinarily have capitulated Bojorge into the headlines," but the country's abortion ban was approved by the national Legislature a week before her death, and "outraged opponents of the legislation have declared Bojorge its first victim," according to the Post. "It's clear that fear of punishment kept the doctors from doing what they needed to do to save [Bojorge] -- which was to abort the pregnancy immediately," Juanita Jimenez of the Women's Autonomous Movement of Nicaragua, a women's rights group, said, adding, "This is exactly what we warned would happen if this law was passed." Julio Cesar Flores, director of the Fernando Velez Paiz Hospital, said Bojorge's death "has nothing to do with the abortion law" and remains under investigation by Nicaraguan medical authorities (Washington Post, 11/28). WAMN in October said it would file an injunction if the bill was approved. In addition, Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, has said the legislation's passage could lead to lawsuits filed in international court. Nicaragua has accepted the authority of the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The Center for Constitutional Rights in Nicaragua also plans to file appeals to the Nicaraguan human rights council and the country's Supreme Court saying that the ban violates a woman's right to life (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 11/27). According to the Post, women's rights advocates likely will ask Bojorge's relatives to be plaintiffs (Washington Post, 11/28).

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