[mgj-discuss] Women's Health in Nicaragua, economics, and International Finance

[jonjon]

<<a post to the Latin American Solidarity Committee
mailing list.  List info follows.>>

New from the IRC's Americas Program:

Women’s Health in Nicaragua: The Need for a Secular
State
By Ana María Pizarro
 
Article 14 of the Nicaraguan Constitution establishes
a secular state with no official religion; Article 68
establishes that “no-one can elude observance of the
laws or impede others from exercising their rights and
fulfilling their duties by invoking religious beliefs
or dispositions.” But recent events related to women’s
health indicate that these constitutional guarantees
are not being fulfilled in Nicaragua. Protest from
religious sectors was so strong that President Bolaños
was forced to withdraw a manual on sex education,
stating that it must “reflect our values, our customs,
our philosophy of life and the Christian nature of our
ethical and moral principles.” 
 
Throughout Latin America, the Vatican has exploited
the state reform process imposed by international
financing agencies to seek legislation that would
confer full citizen status on fetuses from the moment
of conception. The first proposal set forth by the
Vatican is to proclaim March 25 the “Day of the
Unborn.” Argentine ex-President Menem duly proclaimed
“Day of the Unborn” in Argentina in 1999. Alemán
followed suit the following year. The “Day of the
Unborn” has also been decreed in Bolivia, the
Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. This
sets up a contradiction: The constitutions of
countries all over the world grant rights only to
persons already born and these “new” rights would
conflict with the rights of many people already born,
especially women.

Ana Maria Pizarro is a Nicaraguan gynecologist and
director of the SI Mujer Women's Health Center.
Americas Program (www.americaspolicy.org) is pleased
to publish this excerpt from the original published in
the magazine Envío. 

See full article online at:
http://www.americaspolicy.org/reports/2004/0403nicawom.html


With printer-friendly PDF version at:
http://www.americaspolicy.org/pdf/reports/0403nicawomen.pdf


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