(c) Sara Gomez, Ipas

A year and a half after the Nicaraguan government issued a law banning abortion under any circumstance, a new Spanish-language poll in Nicaragua revealed that 83 percent of respondents still believe that abortion should be legal in situations that endanger a woman’s life. A recent demographic study also reveals that, despite legal restrictions, women from all walks of life in Nicaragua continue to seek abortion services.

The poll, conducted this April, included a sampling of 185 respondents between the ages of 18 and 75 in León, Nicaragua’s second-largest city.  Public health graduate students at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de León (UNAN-León) conducted the poll. In addition to the majority findings, the poll also found a significant amount of ignorance about Nicaragua’s abortion laws and about abortion in general.

In Nicaragua, complications from unsafe abortion continue to be a major cause of maternal deaths. Additionally, for every death, many more women are injured, often critically or permanently. These deaths and injuries occur because women who are determined to end their pregnancies seek out dangerous, unqualified providers or treatments when safe options are not available. When abortions are conducted by qualified providers in a safe environment, complications are rare and treatable.

“Pregnancies that are forced, continued under risky circumstances, or unplanned and unwanted, often bring women to make decisions that, in Nicaragua, put her life at risk,” says Marta María Blandón, director for Ipas-Central America.

Abortions have been illegal under any circumstance since November 17, 2006. Interrupting a pregnancy to save the life or health of the woman — in the case of fetal malformation, rape or incest — had previously been technically legal but difficult to obtain. In September 2007, the Nicaraguan National Assembly rejected a vote to legalize therapeutic abortion, cementing the country’s complete ban.

Despite Nicaragua’s legal restrictions, women all over Nicaragua — from all different age groups and educational levels — are continuing to seek abortion services.

“Aborto Inducido en Nicaragua,” a study published in 2007 and conducted by UNAN-León Professor of Public Health Arnoldo Toruño, may provide greater detail on the kinds of women that choose to seek these services. The study included questions about abortion in reproductive health surveys conducted in four areas of Nicaragua: León, Chinandega, Managua and Rivas. A total of 16,511 women between the ages of 15 and 49 were interviewed in 2005; these women answered demographic questions and were asked about their reproductive health behaviors in the past 12 months.

“Among other findings, this study shows us the profile of women looking to interrupt their pregnancies,” says Blandón. “We see that the majority of them have children, and that many women choose abortion out of a sense of responsibility in ensuring their children the best conditions for their future and safety.”

Because the study relied on self-reporting of a highly stigmatized, legally restricted behavior, Toruño believes the study’s recorded frequency of abortion significantly underestimates the frequency of abortion in Nicaragua (a recent Lancet study using other statistic sources estimated a rate of 26 abortions per 100 live births for Central America, more than 20 times the estimate of Toruño’s study’s).

However, Toruño’s study provides new, country-specific demographic information about the women who choose abortion services in Nicaragua. The study found that abortions were most common in the capital Managua, followed by León and Chinandega and then Rivas. About 77 percent of women who reported having an abortion already had children, while about 22 percent did not have children. Eighty-six percent were married or in partnerships, while 14 percent were separated or single. Abortions were most common in the 30-39 age group (36 percent), followed by 20-29 (32 percent), 15-19 (18 percent) and over 40 (14 percent). Among reporting women, 23 percent had received little or no education, 36 percent had completed some level of primary school, 27 percent had attended high school, and 14 percent had attended university. These demographic data are similar to and reinforce data from other studies performed in Peru, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, where abortion is also restricted.

The fact that abortions continue to occur despite Nicaragua’s restrictions leads Toruño to conclude that the country’s laws are not effective. “The clear lesson is that jailing women, far from being a solution to the problem, instead increases maternal deaths. Because of this, it is necessary to find better solutions to the problem,” Toruño writes.

Blandón echoes the commitment to create better solutions: “Ipas-Central America will continue focusing its efforts. We will work to educate women about their sexual and reproductive rights, and health personnel about their role in diminishing unsafe abortion rates as much as possible. And we will not give up in our mission until safe abortion services are legal and available to the women who need them.”

For more information, contact media@ipas.org