Amnesty International has released a report on how last year's Nicaragua ban outlawing abortion in all cases has already begun to effect the girls and women of the nation, primarily in low-income communities.
While the Nicaraguan health ministry has declared its commitment to reducing maternal mortality in the past, banning what they call "therapeutic abortion" in cases where the woman's health is in danger has potentially resulted in an increase in maternal mortality in the last year.
Doctors have also reported that it is as if their "back is to the wall" when pregnant women with complications come to their hospital. In the video, health care professionals talk about the fact that pregnant women are often passed from doctor to doctor because everyone is in fear of being accused of intervening in the pregnancy. And if the woman dies from complications, they're held liable for negligence by the woman's family.
Amnesty International's Executive Deputy Secretary General Kate Gilmore says,
"Nicaragua's ban of therapeutic abortion is a disgrace. It is a human rights scandal that ridicules medical science and distorts the law into a weapon against the provision of essential medical care to pregnant girls and women."
Thirty-three girls and women in Nicaragua have died from pregnancy complications this year (compared to 20 last year). And I don't doubt it will only get worse.
You can download the report here, and take action here.
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Something I find particularly interesting about this report is how it makes apparent the slippery slope from denying women's right to abortions to compromising our overall health and safety. Physicians and nurses interviewed talked about how because of the language of the penal code that revoked nicaraguan women's right to therapeutic abortions, they are prevented from providing best practice care in circumstances where there is a chance the fetus might be hurt or die unexpectedly. Not just in cases where accepted practice calls for termination, but for things like a necessary cardiac surgery before labor to save the woman's life. If the fetus dies, the doctor goes to jail regardless of what the point of the procedure actually was. So, not surprisingly, medical professionals don't want to get involved in complicated pregnancies and women's health suffers across the board. This is just so infuriating. It puts the even the smallest potential risk to fetal health (which can never be truly zero for any procedure at any point in pregnancy) before the immediate health risks to the woman (who needs x procedure NOW)!
Thanks for posting this. I second all of theotherf-word's comments.
Seems like another example of a woman's rights being overlooked in the light of the "rights" of a fetus. The word "incubator" has never seemed so apt.
I sincerely hope the international community will put pressure on Nicaragua after these results become more widely known. Thanks, as always, for raising awareness of non-American struggles for women's rights.
These "non-American struggles" have, in fact, been American struggles in the past, and this must not be forgotten.
Before the legalization of abortion, a woman could arrive at an American emergency room with complications from an illegal abortion, e.g., hemorrhaging -- or even with symptoms that had nothing to do with abortion but which resembled abortion complications to the doctor (hemorrhaging from a miscarriage, excruciating abdominal pain and/or bleeding from some other cause -- there are myriad) -- and doctors would refuse to treat her lest they be somehow implicated. Women died as a result of abortion's illegality, both from botched abortions and from unrelated causes, right there in emergency rooms, because of doctors' fear of getting involved.
I have never heard this aspect of pre-Roe v. Wade America even mentioned in the debate. People need to ask: When abortion is illegal, what are the implications for women's medical care, especially emergency medical care, whether she suffers from abortion complications or some other condition that happens to make doctors nervous?
I would almost bet money that the incidence of obstetric fistula skyrockets in Nicaragua in the next few years.