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Excerpts from "Democracy is Realized in a Parliamentary System": Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega

Complete Text: http://www.presidencia.gob.ni/170108_DemocraciaRealiza.html

Translated by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman,

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega:

January 24, 2008, (LifeSiteNews.com) - I want to refer very specifically to the topic of therapeutic abortion.  I know that it has provoked a reaction in European countries, in the Nordic countries and above all I would say, in the Swedish government.   We even are given to understand that the withdrawal of the Swedish government has to do with this and other political factors, because, on the one hand, they withdraw from Nicaragua and other Latin American countries, it's true, but on the other hand, they continue offering aid to countries that are not among the most impoverished of Latin America, with the exception of Bolivia.

But there are other countries that are in much better condition.  I think that Columbia and Guatemala remain.  I have to respect the criteria of the Swedish government, but I'm sure that if Olof Palme were alive, he would not agree with this decision.  It's ultimately a political decision.  They aren't content, the current Swedish leaders, with the fact that the Sandinistas have returned to power.  I am sure that the Swedish public has its own criteria.

What is happening with this issue of therapeutic abortion?  This law was approved because of the Liberal Revolution, at the end of the last century.  I would say it was simply approved by the force of the Revolution, but, they are those measures that are taken without really having the approval of the population.  This happens with revolutions!  They are movements of general progress, but there are always acts carried out that aren't the best, such that the people are amenable to them.

That was dormant.  When it came time to again debate the Penal Code and other topics in the National Assembly, it was, as it were, discovered that therapeutic abortion existed, and the debate began.

It's important to also take into account the cultural elements of Nicaraguan society.  When we were in the middle of the Revolution of 1979, with the youth and women incorporated, there were comrades that proposed that we approve abortion, one step beyond therapeutic abortion.  We did profound surveys, among the people and the youth, and 99% indicated that they were against abortion.

When they were asked if they had had abortions, some young women had had experiences with abortion, some women, in the interviews they said that yes, that they had had abortions, but they added that they weren't in favor of abortion, because they didn't feel good about having done it.

We insist that it is necessary above all to change the quality of life of Nicaraguan families, of Nicaraguan women, to give training in the area of sexuality to the youth and not try to impose a law that isn't going to be approved by the population.

To this it is necessary to add the political element.  In the 1960s, when the struggle of liberation in Africa, in Asia, in Latin america, gathered strength, in the middle of that great battle it began to be confirmed what was being promoted, developing birth control programs, because of the countries, the developed countries in conflict in those regions.  The United states, above all in Latin America, in Asia, Europe in Africa, in the struggle for independence by the African nations, came to affirm that the most serious problem was the excess of population.

With so many people impoverished, the conditions were there for the multiplication of violence, the revolutionary struggle in all of those countries.  At that time, with a much smaller population in the world, in Nicaragua the population was at around one million eight hundred thousand inhabitants.

Logically the proposal of therapeutic abortion lent itself to great confusion when all of these factors come into play.  And when the topic begins to be debated again, all of the profound inquiries we did, we were not in the government, but we did our surveys, 80% of the population was against abortion!  If we hold a referendum here on the topic, I'm sure that we would have a massive vote against therapeutic abortion.

I think that this is a problem that has to be seen over the long term, that happens by elevating the quality of the population, happens by defending the rights of women and of children.

The truth is that in Nicaragua, the level of domestic violence and violence against women, murder, etc., is the lowest in all of Central America.  Nicaragua has the best level of security at the Central American level.  The rates of violence, of criminality of every type, are much more elevated in the rest of the Central American countries.

I think that this is a problem that has to be addressed over the long term, and I called for the health minister, because here, regarding this topic, some people have affirmed that, the law having barely been approved, scores of women have begun to die everywhere, a huge lie!  Here is the Health Minister, who can explain to us how this issue is being handled regarding the regulations and the whole Procedural Manual of the Ministry of Health.

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