TODAY NICARAGUA – One day after the pope asked church officials to forgive abortions during the Holy Year, a Nicaraguan women rights group, “Catholics for the Right to Choose,” asked that he permanently discount abortion as a sin in certain circumstances.
Spanish news agency EFE report that the group asked the pontiff in a public letter that “when the pregnancy is the product of a rape, when the mother is in a bad healthy or economic situation, and when girls have been sexually abused,” the church not condemn it.
One day earlier, Pope Francis said all priests will be able to forgive abortions – including both the women and the doctors performing the procedure – during the upcoming Holy Year, but maintained that it is still a sin.
The feminist group, which in Spanish is called “Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir,” also requested “all ecclesiastical authorities stop stigmatizing women who chose to abort and stop pressuring civil authorities so they would be persecuted and sentenced as criminals.”
Ecclesiastical authorities also must “appologize over the physical, moral and spiritual damage that affected millions of women who aborted and lacked their mercy.”
Therapeutic abortion has been criminalized in Nicaragua since a 2007 bill, which gave in to the demands of Catholic and Evangelist lobbies.
Before the reform, therapeutic abortion was legal with the agreement of a mother’s relative and three documents from the Ministry of Health. Now, any woman who has an abortion in the country risks between four and eight years in prison.
This article first appeared at Todaynicaragua.com
