Managua, Nicaragua, Nov 15, 2007 / 09:33 am
On Wednesday Nicaragua’s National Assembly rejected a proposal for the third time to legalize therapeutic abortion again in the country’s new Penal Code, which lawmakers finished discussing after a year of debate.
The latest attempt was led by the Sandinista Renewal Movement to get lawmakers to remove the sanctions against abortion from the Penal Code. Abortion supporters sought to create an exception in the law for abortion in cases of life of the mother.
The proposal was rejected by an overwhelming number of lawmakers, and the vote buried any chance of overturning the law that was passed in 2006.
The new code punished those who practice or consent to an abortion with up to three years in prison. It will take effect two months after it has been published in the Nicaraguan daily “La Gaceta.”