Report studies Nicaragua’s abortion ban

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Last November, an odd left-right alliance in Nicaragua enacted one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the Americas. Backed by Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas (who later won Nicaragua’s presidential election), the law prohibits abortion in any and all cases, including when a woman’s life is placed at risk.

On Tuesday, the Washington-based Human Rights Watch held a press conference in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, announcing the results of a study on the law’s impact. The report, titled ‘Over Their Dead Bodies,’ documents how the ban has made women with complications in their pregnancies ‘afraid to seek even legal health services.’ Fearing prosecution under the new law, ‘doctors are unwilling to provide necessary care,’ the report says.

The report recounts the death of a woman at a Managua hospital who went into ‘septic shock’ and died in March because no doctor there would terminate her pregnancy ‘because the fetus was still alive.’

Posted by Héctor Tobar in México City