Eclipsed from the headlines by the ongoing carnage, there is an active
civil resistance in Iraq that opposes the occupation, the torture regime
it protects, and the jihadi and Ba'athist 'resistance' alike.
Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Mon, 10/08/2007 - 01:28.
On Sept. 30 Nicaraguan pro-choice activists staged a protest at Managua's Metropolitan Cathedral during Sunday mass as part of a campaign for the repeal of an October 2006 law criminalizing all abortions. At first the protesters stood in front of the Cathedral with signs, including one that read: "Our Catholic hierarchy had no pity for women." Later they entered the cathedral and approached the main altar. Fistfights broke out between protesters and some of the worshipers, but the protesters went back outside after police agents arrived. There were no arrests.
The campaign to repeal the anti-abortion legislation began with a protest by hundreds of women in Managua on Sept. 28, after the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Sept. 13 to impose criminal penalties for carrying out abortions. Under Article 165, a century-old provision in the Criminal Code, abortions had been legal in cases of rape or incest or when the mother's life was in danger, but shortly before November 2006 national presidential and legislative elections, most of the political parties hastily voted to eliminate the article under pressure from the Catholic church and from Protestant sects. On Oct. 2, the US-based Human Rights Watch released a report on the effects of the ban on therapeutic abortions. There have been at least 80 maternal deaths since October 2006, according to the report. Human Rights Watch investigator Angela Heimburger called on Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega to "help mitigate the disastrous effects of this prohibition, prioritizing access for pregnant women to emergency medical attention."
The protests continued on Oct. 4, when about 100 women demonstrated outside the Camino Real Hotel in northern Managua, where the First Meeting of International and Regional Courts of Justice was being held. "Hypocrites...murderers," the protesters shouted as legislative deputies from the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the right-wing Liberal Constitutionalist Party entered to attend the meeting. The police used force to remove the protesters. (El Nuevo Diario, Managua, Oct. 2; El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Oct. 2 from EFE, Oct. 4 from AP)
The vote comes days after a general strike over neoliberal economic reform in CAFTA partner Dominican Republic.
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Abortion law protests continue in Nicaragua
On Sept. 30 Nicaraguan pro-choice activists staged a protest at Managua's Metropolitan Cathedral during Sunday mass as part of a campaign for the repeal of an October 2006 law criminalizing all abortions. At first the protesters stood in front of the Cathedral with signs, including one that read: "Our Catholic hierarchy had no pity for women." Later they entered the cathedral and approached the main altar. Fistfights broke out between protesters and some of the worshipers, but the protesters went back outside after police agents arrived. There were no arrests.
The campaign to repeal the anti-abortion legislation began with a protest by hundreds of women in Managua on Sept. 28, after the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Sept. 13 to impose criminal penalties for carrying out abortions. Under Article 165, a century-old provision in the Criminal Code, abortions had been legal in cases of rape or incest or when the mother's life was in danger, but shortly before November 2006 national presidential and legislative elections, most of the political parties hastily voted to eliminate the article under pressure from the Catholic church and from Protestant sects. On Oct. 2, the US-based Human Rights Watch released a report on the effects of the ban on therapeutic abortions. There have been at least 80 maternal deaths since October 2006, according to the report. Human Rights Watch investigator Angela Heimburger called on Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega to "help mitigate the disastrous effects of this prohibition, prioritizing access for pregnant women to emergency medical attention."
The protests continued on Oct. 4, when about 100 women demonstrated outside the Camino Real Hotel in northern Managua, where the First Meeting of International and Regional Courts of Justice was being held. "Hypocrites...murderers," the protesters shouted as legislative deputies from the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and the right-wing Liberal Constitutionalist Party entered to attend the meeting. The police used force to remove the protesters. (El Nuevo Diario, Managua, Oct. 2; El Nuevo Herald, Miami, Oct. 2 from EFE, Oct. 4 from AP)
The vote comes days after a general strike over neoliberal economic reform in CAFTA partner Dominican Republic.