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REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN NICARAGUA: FROM THE SANDINISTAS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF VIOLETA CHAMORRO
As the National Opposition Union (UNO) government threatens to overturn the achievements made during the Sandinista years of 1979-90, Nicaraguan women are struggling to maintain the reproductive rights gained in the revolution and to expand in those areas where the revolution fell short. Although women's participation in and access to education and work increased under the Sandinista government, traditional gender roles, the Catholic church, the war, and obstacles within the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) prevented reproductive rights from becoming a primary concern of the revolutionary government. Since the surprising electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in February 1990, Sandinista organizations have been going through a process of self-criticism. Within this context, the fight for reproductive rights has focused both on the past shortcomings of Sandinista policies and on the current campaign to win these rights in spite of the present conservative government.
BIRTH CONTROL AND THE SANDINISTAS
During the Sandinista years, access to health care and education increased, and Nicaragua won worldwide recognition for eradicating polio and reducing illiteracy. The Family Code stated that legally women and men had equal rights and responsibilities to the home and family. Equal rights for women and men were established in the 1987 Constitution. Nevertheless, contraceptives and sex education were only minimally promoted. This was due to many factors, including poverty, the Church (including the prorevolutionary sector), perceived underpopulation (although Nicaragua has a very high birth rate, even in the Latin American context), machismo, and the fear of repressive population control programs.
Nicaraguan machismo promotes the view that men feel powerful when they have many children with different women. According to Cenzontle, a women's educational center in Managua, a man getting a woman pregnant is the highest expression of machismo. In Nicaragua men say, "me tienen tres hijos" (they have three of my children); in other words, someone else is raising his three kids. Cenzontle does not place the blame entirely on men, noting that "there are many women who get pregnant hoping that this will help them keep the man they love, or even create love."(1) In Nicaraguan culture, the mother figure is very important. The celebration of Mary's conception is one of the biggest...