News

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

MANAGUA, February 22, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The international abortion lobby is seeking to use the tragic the case of a pregnant woman with cancer in Nicaragua, in order to promote the legalization of the procedure in the strongly pro-life country.

According to local pro-abortion activists, a 27-year old woman, whom they will only identify by the pseudonym “Amalia,” is in need of an abortion so that she can receive chemotherapy for an unspecified type of cancer, which has spread throughout her body.

However, doctors supporting the cause have been quoted in the major media as saying that the abortion is “necessary” simply because the chemotherapy would be harmful to the unborn child, not because the pregnancy would interfere with treatment.

Dr. Oscar Flores Vigil, President of the pro-abortion Nicaraguan Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics, told the El Nuevo Diario newspaper that, “to treat the cancer, the only thing that can save her life is chemotherapy, but this means that a therapeutic abortion would be necessary, since the baby can't endure the radiation.”

“The baby in development could survive, but he would certainly be affected by severe damage in his physical constitution,” he added.

Flores Vigil did not explain how “chemotherapy” would involve “radiation,” nor why an abortion, which would utterly destroy the child, would be necessary merely to prevent “damage” to the same child.

The president of the Nicaraguan Medical Association, Dr. Ivette Pilarte, has issued a firm rebuttal to those who claim that an abortion is “medically necessary” in the “Amelia” case.

“The Nicaraguan Medical Association, faced with the media situation with has occurred in the 'Amelia' case, finds no justification to submit her to a directly provoked abortion,” wrote Pilarte in an official communication on Saturday.

“Abortion is not going to cure her of her cancer nor of the metastasis, for which it is necessary to give her adequate therapy, curative or palliative,” she added.

International Pro-abortion Groups Jump on Bandwagon

The government of Nicaragua has repeatedly clarified that the country's prohibition of abortion does not ban lifesaving medical procedures that could indirectly and unintentionally cause an abortion. Therefore, chemotherapy and other lifesaving treatments would not be denied to “Amalia” under the nation's laws.  Nevertheless, international pro-abortion groups are seeking to use the case in its campaign to overturn the country's pro-life legislation.

Abortion proponents in Nicaragua say that twenty “national and international” groups have filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR). According to the abortionist website “RH Reality Check,” those groups include the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and Ipas, based in the United States.

One of the Ipas leaders involved in the case, Martha Maria Blandon, was involved in the infamous “Rosita” case used in recent years by abortionist groups to promote the liberalization of Nicaragua's abortion laws.

Blandon and other feminists in the “Network of Women Against Violence” helped the stepfather of “Rosita,” a nine year old girl who had been impregnated by rape, to secure a clandestine abortion for his stepdaughter in 2003. Rosita's stepfather and mother were transformed into international spokesmen for the pro-abortion cause, until the Nicaraguan media revealed in 2007 that Rosita's rapist was the stepfather himself, who had impregnated Rosita a second time.

Despite Blandon's involvement in the now-infamous case, the Nicaraguan media seem to be accepting her claims about “Amalia” at face value, now as coordinator of the Strategic Group for the Depenalization of Abortion.

Along with more than twenty other abortionist organizations, including the “Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights” (CENIDH), Blandon is now selling the “Amalia” story to all who will listen, and is conducting a letter writing campaign to major figures in the Nicaraguan government.  Blandon says her coalition will appeal the case to the nation's Supreme Court.

Government Investigates Case

In response to the complaints, Nicaraguan Health Minister Guillermo Gonzalez has established a special medical commission to conduct a review of the case. A decision is expected shortly.

According to the Spanish press agency EFE, Gonzalez has noted that “sadly, it seems that there are political interests behind this,” apparently referring to the machinations of pro-abortion organizations, which are constantly agitating against the government's prohibition of direct abortions.

Presumably, the medical commission will also resolve accusations made by pro-abortion groups that “Amalia” has not received treatment for her cancer for over two weeks, due to concern that the treatment will harm her unborn child.

Ricardo Cuadra, Director of the Oscar Danilo School Hospita, has stated that the doctors are following the government's guidelines and awaiting a decision by the recently-created medical commission before proceeding.

“The specialists are the ones who have to decide the course of therapy for her (Amalia), always considering the good of the mother and the child, and I repeat, we are going to comply to what is established for these cases by the Ministry of Health,” said Cuadra.