Nicaragua Abortion Ban Still Subject of American Media Attack Articles 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 27, 2007
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The abortion ban in Nicaragua continues to come under attack not just from pro-abortion groups but from the American media. Earlier this month, lawmakers in the Central American nation failed a third time to legalize some abortions there and the Associated Press has written an attack article in response.
LifeNews.com reported on November 15 that the Nicaragua Congress failed a third attempt to change the nation’s law on abortion.
Today, AP writer Traci Carl has penned a polemic piece with the headline, "Nicaraguan abortion ban proves deadly."
Carl’s story focuses on the case of Olga Reyes, a 22-year-old law student who allegedly died after doctors refused to operate on an ectopic pregnancy fearing they would violate the nation’s law prohibiting all abortions.
She claims the abortion ban is responsible for increasing maternal mortality and not until the second half of the story does she finally include quotes from the pro-life side.
Rev. Henry Moreno, a priest who helped lead a campaign of 300,000 people in support of the abortion ban, told AP that there is no reason doctors can’t try to save both the life of the mother and the baby in cases when a pregnancy threatens a mother’s life.
"When two lives are in danger, you must try to save both the woman and the child. It’s difficult to say now that it isn’t possible to save both," he said.
Walter Mendiata, president of Nicaragua’s Association of Gynecologists and a backer of the abortion ban, told Carl that physicians in Nicaragua have no reason to worry about prosecution for treating an ectopic pregnancy.
"There’s no discussion in a case like that," he said. "It’s urgent, and you operate."
Raimundo Rojas, the Hispanic outreach director for National Right to Life, tells LifeNews.com he’s not surprised that the media continue to try to make the abortion ban seem anti-woman.
"Now they not only want, but actually expect us to believe these ridiculous claims of dead women and girls not getting medical care," Rojas said.
The Hispanic advocate told LifeNews.com that pro-abortion groups do a disservice to Latino women by telling them abortion is safe or benefits their health and well-being.
"They claim to be pro-woman and that their interest is in lowering maternal mortality by making abortion the law of the land, when in fact they know that lowering maternal mortality numbers requires access to clean water, prenatal care centers and adequate medical supplies," he said.
Rojas says groups like Human Rights Watch and Catholics for a Free Choice will continue to push abortion on Latin American countries because they can profit from it.
"There is no money to make for the benefactors of these groups if a woman in Latin America carries a healthy baby to term," he concluded. "They must use these scare tactics to put pressure on these last bastions of safety for the unborn, we cannot let them win."
