By Nima Nayebi

Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – In November 2006, Nicaragua enacted a ban on all abortions with no exceptions, even to save a mother’s life. This position was largely adopted due to the influence of the Catholic Church, according to reports. The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights and the UN Committee against Torture have called on Nicaragua to reconsider its total ban and to consider including life-saving exceptions.

In the two years since the enactment of the law, many international groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have organized to oppose it, pointing out that it is a violation of women’s human rights and it needlessly causes death or injury to Nicaraguan women. 6,700 women are reportedly hospitalized every year due to abortion-related complications in Nicaragua. According to Ipas Central America, twelve Nicaraguan women have thus far died in childbirth where they would have lived had the 2006 law not been enacted. The country imposes criminal sanctions, including prison terms, for doctors performing abortions for women seeking them, regardless of the circumstances.

Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International stated: “The [UN] is sending a clear message to the Nicaraguan state: So long as the complete ban with no exceptions is in place, you will be in breach of your international legal obligations to protect human rights. If this complete ban were to stay, women and girls would continue to be at risk of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Such inaction would show a cruel indifference to the physical pain, psychological anguish and lack of human dignity this law causes women and girls in Nicaragua to suffer by denying and thwarting their access to essential medical treatment during pregnancy.”

Managua continues to ignore objections to this unpopular law.