A pregnant 27-year old Nicaraguan woman, "Amelia," with metastatic cancer has been denied medical treatment on the grounds that it might harm her baby.

Nicaragua passed a draconian anti-abortion law in 2008 which criminalizes abortion even in the case of rape or incest or when the mother's life is in danger. Nicaraguan doctors are prohibited from treating pregnant women with cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria and cardiac diseases, and threatened with prison sentences for providing health services or information related to abortion.

Amelia has effectively been handed a death sentence by her government. Each day she is denied treatment, she edges closer to death; in a tragic irony, she will most likely die before the baby is even born. Her 10-year old daughter will be left without a mother, since the Nicaraguan government values the life of an unborn fetus over that of a mother. 

Please ask Luz Patricia Mejía Guerrero, Chair of the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights, to urgently petition Nicaragua's government to allow Amelia treatment and overturn this brutal law, which not only prevents women from receiving essential health services to save their lives but also forces rape and incest victims as young as ten years old to carry their pregnancies to term. And tell Nicaragua's president and other Nicaraguan authorities on health, justice, and women's issues that the international community is watching and not to commit this egregious abuse.

Nicaragua's government must be told that this law is an egregious violation of women's most basic human rights.