Friday, October 27, 2006

Managua, Nicaragua - Women's rights protesters took to the streets surrounding the National Assembly Building in Managua to speak out against a newly proposed law that could ban abortion regardless of the circumstances throughout the country.

Demonstrators also decried the Catholic church who supported the bill. Many carried black crosses with devil horns and other props, and hooded protesters built bonfires in the road.

The law was fast tracked through the Parliament just days before a tense presidential election. The bill if signed by President Enrique BolaƱos, will overturn a 130-year-old policy permitting abortions in exceptional cases and impose severe penalties of 6-30 year prison sentences on abortion doctors and the women who obtain the procedure.