MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP):

Nicaragua's Con-gress voted yesterday to ban all abortions, including those that could save the mother's life.

If signed into law by President Enrique Bolanos, the measure would eliminate a century-old exception to Nicaragua's abortion ban that permits the procedure if three doctors certify that a woman's life or health is at risk.

Fifty-nine lawmakers voted for the measure. Nine lawmakers abstained and 29 others did not attend the legislative session.

Bolanos has proposed increasing prison sentences for abortion currently around six years to 10 to 30 years for women who have the procedure as well as those who assist them. But it was unclear whether he would sign the bill approved yesterday after law-makers decided not to increase the penalties.

The measure has drawn protests from women's rights groups. The Women's Autonomous Movement has said it was prepared to seek an injunction to block the measure if it passed.

Restrictive laws

Aside from Cuba, which offers abortions on demand for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, Latin America has some of the world's most restrictive anti-abortion laws.

El Salvador and Chile also ban all types of abortions.

Most of the other countries in this heavily Roman Catholic region allow abortion when a woman's life is in danger but deny it to pregnant victims of rape or incest, according to the Centre for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based advocacy group that supports abortion rights.

In May, Colombia's constitu-tional court legalised abortion in cases where foetuses were severely malformed, the pregnancy was the result of a rape or incest or the mother's life was in danger.

Some 85 per cent of Nicaragua's five million people are Catholics.

Around the world, more than a dozen countries have made it easier to get abortions in the past decade, and women from Mexico to Ireland have mounted court challenges to get access to the procedure.