United Nations Urges
Nicaragua to Legalize Abortion
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
The United Nations' "High Commission of
Human Rights" (OHCHR) is urging Nicaragua to
legalize "therapeutic" abortions, as well as
abortions in rape and incest cases,
according to the Mexican government news
agency Notimex.
At a meeting of the Periodic Universal
Examination of the OHCHR, Nicaragua was told
by the Commission to "study the possibility
of foreseeing exceptions to the general
prohibition of abortion in therapeutic cases
and in pregnancies brought about by rape and
incest," Notimex reported yesterday.
In addition to the United States, the OHCHR
was reportedly joined by Mexico, Canada,
Britain, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, the
Netherlands, and France in urging Nicaragua
to relax its protections for unborn
children.
However, according to the Spanish news
agency EFE, the government of Nicaragua
responded with a strong defence of its
pro-life position.
The new laws, which prohibit all direct
abortions in Nicaragua, "are the result of
the exercise of national sovereignty ... it
is not a religious issue," said Ana Isabel
Morales, Nicaragua's Minister of State. "The
majority of Nicaraguan citizens believe that
the right to life is important, that
abortion is not an appropriate method of
birth control," she added.
However, deviating from a completely
pro-life position, Morales also said that
"the real solution is prevention [of
pregnancy] through the use of contraceptive
methods."
The OHCHR also reportedly cited the UN
"Committee against Torture" which "expressed
its profound concern over the general
prohibition of abortion in the Penal Code"
of Nicaragua, reflecting the increasingly
common claim among pro-abortion
organizations that prohibiting the procedure
is a form of "torture."
Also joining the chorus against Nicaragua
were two international pro-abortion groups,
"Amnesty International" and "Human Rights
Watch," which claim that women are dying in
Nicaragua because they are not permitted to
have abortions.
As LifeSiteNews reported in August of 2009,
Amnesty International has distorted and
manipulated statistics in order to create
the impression of rising maternal mortality
in Nicaragua following the implementation of
the country's abortion ban.
In reality, maternal mortality fell
dramatically in the years following the 2006
legal reform, which prohibited all direct
abortions.
Despite claims to the contrary by Amnesty
and other pro-abortion organizations, the
Nicaraguan government has repeatedly stated
that life-saving medical procedures that
could cause an indirect abortion are not
prohibited under the law. |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
