Last Thursday, in commemoration of International Women's Day, over two thousand women and men from across Nicaragua gathered to protest the total ban on abortion—including in cases where pregnant women's lives are at risk—that has been in place since late 2006. Their demands were simple:

• Restore the 130-year-old therapeutic abortion provision to the Nicaraguan Penal Code, thereby decriminalizing the procedure in cases of life-threatening pregnancy, in order to avoid the deaths of more women and adolescent girls.
• Debate and approve a law that guarantees equal opportunities for Nicaraguan women.
• Implement a national sexuality education program in the public school system.
• Craft state policies and programs that address, prevent, and condemn all forms of violence against women.

Click below to see images from the march.

Photos by Andrea Lynch and Fidealeyda Ávalos.