This is what TheoCon maternal healthcare looks like -- UPDATE

I was wondering what happened to Amalia, the pregnant Nicaraguan woman who has cancer. Doctors were afraid to treat her because it might harm or kill the fetus and expose them to the draconian law prohibiting abortion for any reason.

Her case was to be reviewed by a panel of some sort.

No follow-up in the English press but I found this, alas in Spanish.

I ran it through Babel Fish and got the gist, but being the responsible blogger I am, I wanted to make sure. So I zipped the link to Beijing York, who translated the relevant bit:

Despite international and national pressure from various human rights groups - arguing that women should have the right to abort in order to save their lives, the Nicaraguan Medical Association produced a statement saying (more or less):

"An abortion is not going to cure this woman of her cancer or metastasis, for which she needs to receive appropriate treatment, be it curative or palliative and ensure her quality of life."

After 10 days of debates from when she first entered the medical system at 12 weeks gestation, the doctors have agreed to start chemotherapy.

First, Amalia had to sign a form taking full responsibility should any harm come to her fetus during the treatment now that the medical team has stated that they would not perform an abortion.

On Feb 26, the Health Ministry approved the chemotherapy. The doctors officially advised that the fetus would be impacted and might not survive the treatments.

According to some doctors (who remained anonymous), this young woman has very little chance of recovering from her cancer. The Ministry had no comment.

So. There. Dead woman. Dead fetus.

And she gets to torture herself for whatever time remains for her with thoughts of what the chemotherapy is doing to her fetus. After all, she was forced to take 'full responsibility' for it.

Could it be any more twisted?

And this is the kind of no-abortion, no-contraception, no-family-planning maternal healthcare that Motherhood Steve is promoting for poor countries.

In our name.

This is what TheoCon maternal healthcare looks like

This is what Motherhood Steve wants to offer poor women in the developing world. From Nicaragua* again.

Nicaraguan authorities have withheld life-saving treatment from a pregnant cancer patient because it could harm the foetus and violate a total ban on abortion.

A state-run hospital has monitored the cancer spreading in the body of the 27-year-old named only as Amalia since her admission on February 12 but has not offered chemotherapy, radiotherapy or a therapeutic abortion, citing the law.

The decision has ignited furious protests from relatives and campaigners who say the woman, who has a 10-year-old daughter and is 10 weeks pregnant, will die unless treated. The cancer is suspected to have spread to her brain, lungs and breasts. They have petitioned the courts, government and the pan-regional Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intervene.

The case has revived controversy over the 2007 law which made Nicaragua one of the few countries to prohibit abortion under any circumstances. Girls and women who seek an abortion, and health professionals who provide health services associated with abortion, face jail.

No exceptions. None. Not rape, not incest. Certainly not the health or life of the woman. Even women carrying fetuses with no brains and zero hope of life must carry them to term.

Amalia is being monitored at a hospital in Leon, the second-largest city in the impoverished central American country. The hospital director, Ricardo Cuadra, said the case had been referred to a government-run medical commission which is due to issue a recommendation next Monday.

The doctors won't treat her because they're scared. Imagine being one of the doctors or nurses 'monitoring' Amalia.

The government said it would make an announcement after the medical commission reported. "We will comment on this case in due time," said the health minister, Guillermo Gonzalez.

And then the spin:

In apparent reference to the authorities' frequent clashes with non-governmental organisations, he added: "Unfortunately, it seems that there are political interests behind this."

Spin taken up by a Catlick organ.

In an attempt to pressure officials in Nicaragua to legalize abortion, feminist groups are drawing attention to the dramatic case of a pregnant woman suffering from cancer, arguing that the only chance of survival for “Amelia,” the fictitious name given to the woman, is to undergo an abortion.

Um. No, not in anything I've read. Amalia's family and supporters want her cancer treated.

Typical fetus fetishist fantasy. Elsewhere in the article, there is the claim that Amalia is being 'sequestered' by the evil abortion-loving feminazis.

Last summer, DJ! blogged on a scathing report from Amnesty International.

According to official figures, 33 girls and women have died in pregnancy this year as compared to 20 in the same period last year. Amnesty International believes these figures are only a minimum as the government itself has acknowledged that the number of maternal deaths is under-recorded.

And ferlardsake, it's not just the preventable deaths of these women, but the bloody suffering they go through. And their families. And their soon-to-be-orphaned children.

Yet this is the kind of no-family-planning, no-contraception, no-abortion, misogynist healthcare Steve is promoting.

It's unconscionable.

* For more information on the dastardly wheeling and dealing, including Daniel Ortega's embrace of Catholicism, at least in part to evade charges of 'systematic sexual abuse' of his step-daughter, check out this old blogpost I wrote at Birth Pangs.

Sheer Horror

From Nicaragua:

A total ban on abortion in Nicaragua is endangering the lives of girls and women according to an Amnesty International report out today.

A new law which came into force a year ago has criminalised abortion regardless of the circumstances, leaving incest and rape victims compelled to have babies, and pregnant women with serious illnesses denied treatment.

The organisation says their report, "The total abortion ban in Nicaragua: Women's lives and health endangered, medical professionals criminalised", found a minimum of 33 girls and women have died in pregnancy this year, compared to 20 for the same period last year.

Amnesty said the new penal code, which came into force in July last year, criminalises all forms of abortion regardless of the circumstances in which it is sought, obtained or performed. The revised code stipulates prison sentences for girls and women who seek an abortion and for health professionals who provide health services associated with abortion.

It also stipulates criminal sanctions for medical workers who treat pregnant women for illnesses such as cancer and HIV/Aids, where the treatment may cause injury to the unborn baby.

The law also goes as far as to punish those who have suffered a miscarriage, as in many cases it is impossible to distinguish whether it was induced or not.

Only three per cent of the world's countries have such absolute bans on abortion in place.

Speaking at a press conference in Mexico City following her visit to Nicaragua, Amnesty International's executive deputy secretary general, Kate Gilmore, said: "Nicaragua's penal code is a callous and cynical artefact of the political wheeling and dealing that took place in the country's 2006 elections*. Today, however, it punishes women and girl children for seeking life saving medical treatment and doctors for providing it.

"There's only one way to describe what we have seen in Nicaragua: sheer horror.

"Children are being compelled to bear children. Pregnant women are being denied essential including life saving medical care.

"What alternatives is this government offering a ten-year-old pregnant as a result of rape? And to a cancer sufferer who is denied life saving treatment just because she is pregnant, while she has other children waiting at home?"

From AI's site:

"Nicaragua’s ban of therapeutic abortion is a disgrace. It is a human rights scandal that ridicules medical science and distorts the law into a weapon against the provision of essential medical care to pregnant girls and women," said Kate Gilmore.

Sheer horror is what the fetus fetishists would inflict on us.

But you knew that.

I wondered what SUZY ALL-CAPS would make of it. (Link removed because of fetal pr0n redirect.)

And amidst the horror, I laughed. This is the craziest pretzel-brained leap-spin-twist of Lame Logic I've seen this week.

Here's her title: 'Amnesty International Calls on Nicaragua to Discriminate Against its Unborn Citizens'. Then the requisite quote from LifeShite, then the intended knock-out to the nads:

Amnesty cannot be a true human rights organization and call for Nicaragua to permit the killing of its citizens.

Shame on Amnesty International.

I'm pretty sure SHE's dead serious.

* For more information on the dastardly wheeling and dealing, including Daniel Ortega's embrace of Catholicism, at least in part to evade charges of 'systematic sexual abuse' of his step-daughter, check out this old blogpost I wrote at Birth Pangs.