[women-rights] Nicaragua: Penal reform constitutes an assault on human rights

Human Rights Watch Condemns the Elimination of Therapeutic Abortion
>From the Penal Code

(New York, October 26, 2006) -- The congressional vote which today
eliminated all exceptions to the general penalization of abortion in
Nicaragua constitutes a direct threat to human rights, said Human Rights
Watch. The new penal code penalizes abortion even when it is carried out
to save the pregnant woman's life, or when the pregnancy is the result of
rape or incest.

"The new penal code doesn't just go against basic human rights: it goes
against fundamental principles of humanity," said Jose Miguel Vivanco,
director of Human Rights Watch's Americas Division. "Human Rights Watch
knows from experience what it generally means to be pregnant as the result
of rape, or to have an unsafe abortion: misery, desperation, and even the
death of the pregnant woman."

The reform has been criticized by international institutions, including
United Nations agencies, for taking place in a politicized environment,
since the vote happened on the eve of the presidential elections in
Nicaragua, scheduled for November 5.

"Women shouldn’t go to prison for having abortions, it’s that
simple; and even less should they have to risk their lives because of
complications during pregnancy," said Vivanco. "But instead of protecting
the rights of the citizens they represent, the political parties have used
women’s bodies as electoral battle ground."

Human Rights Watch Press release