Germans pressuring Nicaragua to legalize abortion

Berlin, Germany, Oct 11, 2007 / 08:57 am

The magazine Lateinamerika Nachrichten (Reports on Latin America) is encouraging Germans to send post cards to the president of Legislative Assembly of Nicaragua, Rene Nunez Tellez, to pressure the country to turn back from its pro-life policies and legalize therapeutic abortion.

Analysts consider this new case of European pressure on Nicaragua to be unprecedented.  The post cards, which Germans are asked to send to the Nicaraguan embassy in Germany, include false information about the number of deaths the country’s pro-life laws have supposedly caused.

According to Carlos Polo, director for Latin America of the Population Research Institute, the campaign is being led by a small sector of German society and is an “intolerable meddling of German citizens in the affairs of another country.”  “The message on the post cards demonstrates serious ignorance about what is being debated in Nicaragua and about what concerns Nicaraguans,” he said.

“No Nicaraguan lawmaker or any other authority has included cases of rape under the umbrella of so-called ‘therapeutic’ abortion nor has anyone attempted to elevate it to the level of a human right.  This kind of talk is only coming from a group of Germans,” Polo warned.

“The post card’s claim that 54 women have died because of the outlawing of abortion is totally arbitrary and without basis, as Nicaragua’s Health Minister has recently explained,” he went on.

Polo said Nicaraguans should decide for themselves about their own laws and that the small group of Germans promoting this campaign see themselves as superior to Nicaraguans.