Amid a national debate over abortion prompted by the rape of a 9-year-old girl, Nicaragua's Roman Catholic church is comparing abortions to bus bombs.
"Is there any difference between a bus full of passengers that receives the impact of a car bomb and a metallic instrument that impacts the maternal womb to suck out a fetus?" the bishops asked in an open letter issued Monday night.
The document urged Nicaraguan congressman to reject proposals to liberalize abortion laws and in fact, to tighten them.
In Costa Rica, meanwhile, a public defender asked a court to release the 20-year-old man suspected of raping a 9-year-old Nicaraguan girl a case that set off a major debate on abortion in Nicaragua.
Attorney General Julio Centeno said Monday his office is investigating whether a crime was committed when doctors gave an abortion to the girl on Thursday.
The Network of Women Against Violence announced last week that the girl, identified as "Rosa," received an abortion at a clinic in Managua, some 16 weeks after she was raped in the neighboring country of Costa Rica.
On Friday, Health Minister Lucia Salvo called the abortion "a crime." On Sunday, Roman Catholic Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo said that those who promoted and carried out the abortion were excommunicated.
The Network of Women Against Violence insisted that the girl's parents has acted legally following a medical prescription.
Nicaragua's congress, the National Assembly, plans to discuss modifications to the law that currently bans abortions except where several doctors certify that the mother's life is in danger or that the fetus is malformed and the husband or closest relatives approve.
The Network of Women Against Violence had urged lawmakers to legalize abortion.
"For the love of Jesus Christ, for the salvation you hope for and for the good of the nation: do not approve abortion under any motive or pretext," the bishops wrote.
The bishops condemned the idea of "legalizing the abominable crime of abortion even disguised under supposed pseudo-humanitarian extenuating factors such as calling it therapeutic."
In the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, public defender Vanessa Nunez on Monday asked a judge to free 20-year-old farmworker Alex Barquero, arguing that there was evidence he did not have sex with the child.
Barquero has been ordered detained for three months while officials investigate the case against him.
Nunez said medical examination showed her client did not suffer from sexually transmitted diseases. A doctor who attended to the girl in a hospital here said she had apparently been infected with a venereal disease by her attacker.