Marta Maria Blandon and Lorna Norori: "we have successfully challenged two states"

Women's Health Journal, Jan-March, 2003

In terms of our legal strategy, we decided to go straight to the highest authority in the country in order to have a legally solid case. We had the support of jurist Sergio Garcia Quinteros, who is very well respected in the country and the region, who worked for us as the family's lawyer to defend Rosita's right to legally terminate her pregnancy as guaranteed by article 165 of the Penal Code.

We also recognize that we have learned a lesson about the internal politics of women's organizations because we had to confront issues like the exercise of leadership and decision-making in crisis situations and how to resolve issues of security in such a tense environment in which the entire world was watching us and any mistake could mean disaster ...

Lorna: We also had to bear in mind that the Red de Mujeres contra la Violencia is on the President's advisory council, and this position was only possible after a long lobbying effort. Now, without a doubt, our relationship with the State is taking on a different dimension, and we must reconstruct this relationship in order to continue to have access to this space to voice our demands.

Marta: It's worth noting that, as in Chile, it is very difficult to talk about abortion in Nicaragua, but this case surpassed all our expectations. More than 90% of the population--across gender, age, socio-economic groups--was supportive of Rosita having a therapeutic abortion. There was a huge outpouring of support, and the case was also covered extensively by the Nicaraguan media, even the most conservative.

What should we expect now from the fundamentalist and conservative forces?

Marta: What lies ahead is not going to be easy because we have successfully challenged two States: Costa Rica, the Switzerland of Central America, where everything is perfect and where we discovered and documented the disastrous violation of human rights that had been committed against this family; and Nicaragua, a parochial State where we also defied the Catholic Church.

Lorna: Two days after the press conference announcing the abortion, a permanent working group of "pro-life" activists began to monitor all the laws being debated in Parliament. And we are already witnessing the results: the Equal Opportunity Law, the fruit of two years of dedicated efforts, was finally rejected.

However, we have also made some truly significant gains. One of these is the overwhelming grassroots support for Rosita and her family. Another has been the coordination among women's organizations in Nicaragua as well as Costa Rica and the solidarity that has come from numerous countries and regions. How can we forget that the Red Feminista contra la Violencia (Feminist Network Against Violence) in Spain gathered over 30,000 signatures of people who declared that they wanted to be excommunicated in support of Rosita and her family, in defense of the right to freedom of reproductive choice?