Threat to the Right to Therapeutic Abortion in Nicaragua

The motion

That the Parliament condemns the threat to the right to therapeutic abortion in Nicaragua; notes that under proposed legislation the 130-year-old law protecting women’s lives may be overturned; understands that this proposed legislation would amend Nicaragua’s penal code, a code that provides for legal abortions where a woman’s life or health is endangered; notes that the changes have been demanded by the Nicaraguan Catholic bishops; further notes that the Nicaraguan Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians has protested against the proposed changes, stating that doctors have a duty to save the lives of their patients and will be unable to do so in all cases if the legislature complies with the churches’ demand for changes in the penal code; further notes that the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights (CENIDH) considers that the elimination of therapeutic abortion would be a violation of the human rights of women as well as a violation of the long-standing Nicaraguan principle of the state as secular; congratulates the Autonomous Women’s Movement which has rallied hundreds of women from civil society and human rights groups to protest in support of therapeutic abortion and notes that, in contrast to the massive march supported by the Catholic and evangelical churches and many political figures, the National Assembly refused to receive leaders of the protest; acknowledges that 98% of countries allow for abortion when a woman’s life is in danger and that more than 60% accept it when a woman’s health is in danger, and calls on the Scottish Executive to convey its condemnation to the Nicaraguan Government over this threat.


No recorded vote on this motion. Most motions are never debated, and many that are debated are agreed without a division. Vote records are published from 2011.

SSP 3 Sol 1 Ind 1

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

No contribution in the Official Report cites S2M-05010 by reference.