Nicaragua's Abortion Ban Due to Unity, Cooperation between Catholics and Evangelicals

Sara Miller Llana/TN : Nov 2, 2006
The Christian Science Monitor

"Evangelicals in Nicaragua were once overlooked as outcasts. Now no political contender can afford to alienate them..."

The Christian Science Monitor reports that Nicaragua's recent passing of one of the strictest abortion laws in the hemisphere last week, was due in large part to the fact that Catholics and evangelical Protestants worked together to see it happen.

In a huge show of anti-abortion solidarity, Catholics and Protestants united last month in a gigantic rally in the nation's capitol of Managua. The two groups — 20,000 evangelicals and 50,000 Catholics — marched from separate locations, converging before the National Assembly. "It was extraordinary, to be standing there with us and all the bishops," Roberto Rojas, vice president for the National Council of Evangelical Pastors of Nicaragua, is quoted as saying. "It made us realize how much power we have together."

Notes reporter Sara Miller: "Evangelicals in Nicaragua were once overlooked as outcasts. Now no political contender can afford to alienate them.... Their ascent has been among the most dramatic in Latin America. At the end of the 1970s, only five percent of Nicaraguans were evangelicals. Now they account for more than 20 percent — some say more than 30 percent — of the population.... They are running for office, partnering with Catholics, and forcing social change — which could augur a new exercise of power among evangelicals throughout the region."

It is reportedly hoped that the success of their cooperation will inspire future movements across Latin America.