The women's movement in Nicaragua

Movement for sexual and reproductive rigths of women

Tags: Central America & Mexico, Civil Society Building
Additional tags: Women gender Nicaragua social movement

A need has been identified for dialogue within the women's movement in Nicaragua. The movement will reflect on its achievements, gains and losses, lessons learned and pending tasks. The movement also needs to analyse the challenges and define its future actions.

Context
On October 26, 2006 the National Legislative Assembly in Nicaragua approved an amendment to the constitution which resulted in an annulment of article 165 of the Penal Code of 1893. Article 165 established that therapeutic abortion was a legal act only in the case that it was certified by three doctors that the woman in question’s life was at risk. However, with the passing of this amendment, whoever incurs on this act could be punished with a prison sentence of four to eight years, even if this procedure would save the life of a pregnant woman or if the pregnancy was a result of incest or rape. This amendment was adopted in the midst of the presidential elections of November 2006, a fact which as been much criticised by both national and international organisations.

The movement for the decriminalisation of therapeutic abortion carries out an important struggle, since they consider that the approval of this amendment challenges both women’s rights and human rights; in addition to placing the reproductive health of these women in danger. For this reason so-cial organisations have demonstrated in the streets as a protest against this amendment. This movement is comprised of a series of civil and women’s organisations, children’s organisations, human rights organisations, medical associations, academics, the communal movement and so on. Each of these has pressured governmental, legislative and judicial instances, on their own, to de-cide upon the case. Numerous international organisations have joined these national and interna-tional organisations in making declarations and protesting in demonstrations.
On September 13, 2007, the National Assembly of Nicaragua voted 66-3 for a reform of the Penal Code which confirms the criminalisation of therapeutic abortion with sentences of up to 3 years. This reform contradicts the international obligations that Nicaragua has which ensure women a right to health and life.

The movement’s struggle has continued against the government of Daniel Ortega and his patriar-chal and antidemocratic “gender policy,” which has sought to strip women of their rights, as in the case of therapeutic abortion. On March 8, 2008, a strong protest demonstration was carried out against this policy which makes women as citizens with rights disappear, and privileges the tradi-tional family structure over women as individual persons.
Faced with this context, a need has been identified for dialogue where the movement reflects on its achievements, gains and losses, lessons learned and pending tasks. The movement also needs to analyse the challenges and define its future actions.

Objectives:
a) Analysis of the strategies undertaken in the Nicaraguan Women Movement’s battle so that reproductive and sexual rights are validated with an emphasis the decriminalization of abortion.
b) Analysis of the national and international context around which the debate on - sexual and reproductive rights of Nicaraguan women, with a special emphasis on patriarchal power and the way in which power quotas are negotiated over women’s bodies and lives- is held with the State, government and the population in general.
c) To study the focus, arguments and counter-arguments made around this issue and the role that the FTAs play in this debate (advances and drawbacks).
d) To identify achievements, weaknesses and challenges to the women’s movement to make effective the sexual and reproductive rights of Nicaraguan women.
e) To contribute to the strengthening of spaces of action and dialogue within the Nicara-guan women’s movement around an exercise of their reproductive and sexual rights.

Key research questions:
• What were the strategies used by the Nicaraguan women’s movement to obtain the le-gality of therapeutic abortion?
• What factors explain the failure to exercise the right to therapeutic abortion on the part of the Nicaraguan women’s movement?
• What actions must be strengthened in order to continue this struggle?