NICARAGUA OUTLAWS THERAPEUTIC ABORTION; WOMEN'S LIVES JEOPARDIZED.

A doctor terminating a pregnancy in Nicaragua to save a woman's life, or for any other reason, can now look forward to a ten-to-twenty-year prison sentence. The woman who has the abortion faces four years. On Oct. 26 the Asamblea National (AN) repealed Article 165 of the criminal code allowing

Specifically, what medical practitioners have lost is the language of Article 165, which stipulated, "Therapeutic abortion will be determined scientifically, with the intervention of at least three practitioners and the consent of the spouse or nearest relative of the woman, for legal purposes." Also lost is the protection of Article 146, which states, "Abortion will be determined scientifically, with the intervention of three medical specialists of the Ministry of Health, and the consent of the woman. This will not be punishable in any case."

Seeing an opening for this legislation as the Nov. 5 election day loomed closer, the Catholic Church joined forces with the many evangelical churches in Nicaragua to push through the legislation. Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, now retired but still powerful, began in early October to exhort Nicaraguans to vote against anyone who promoted abortion. "Everyone has their way of thinking, but the people must know for whom to vote Nov. 5, to see who protects life, who defends life from conception until they are called to the house of the Father," said Obando.

The churches organized a petition campaign with a march to the AN on Oct. 7 to deliver a mountain of signatures, an estimated 290,000 of them, to the legislators. The lawmakers, noted during the past few years for their torpor, their stultified official performance on other matters, acquiesced with lightning speed to the demands of the cleric-driven multitude that there be no abortion under any circumstances in Nicaragua. The messengers, thousands of school children, men, and women, were bused in for the event from the far reaches of the country.

Political opportunism

Of the major presidential candidates, the conservatives Jose Rizo of the Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (PLC) and Eduardo Montealegre of the breakaway Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense (ALN) were in the throng, with their wives and running mates in tow. The Catholic hierarchy had asked, however modestly, that the event not be politicized, but many showed up with party banners and T-shirts. PLC spokesman Leonel Teller showed up with a band of youths with banners reading, "Vote for Rizo and reject therapeutic abortion." The display drew the scorn of other marchers, forcing Rizo to leave, but the tactic could not have hurt.