Adolescents with HIV face “silence” over sex and contraception

Interviews in rural Senegal suggest adolescents still can’t get information on sexual and reproductive health, even in healthcare settings

Hester Phillips
06 July 2023

A serious lack of information and services for adolescents with HIV in rural Senegal is leading to unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions and more babies being born with HIV.

What is the research about? - What happens when adolescents who were born with HIV reach an age when they begin to think about sex, and possibly become sexually active.  Researchers interviewed 21 adolescent girls and 19 adolescent boys with HIV (ages 12-19) in rural areas outside Dakar. They also interviewed their parents/guardians and local healthcare workers.

Continued: https://www.beintheknow.org/news-and-blogs/adolescents-hiv-face-silence-over-sex-and-contraception


SENEGAL – Laws on abortion and other girls’ and women’s rights to be amended

SENEGAL – Laws on abortion and other girls’ and women’s rights to be amended

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Sept 10, 2019

Laws related to abortion and other rights of girls and women are soon be amended in Senegal. On 26 July, during a dinner discussion organised by the Association de Juristes de Senegal (AJS), the government director of human rights, Moussa Ka, explained that the State had made a commitment to establish a technical committee to review the legislative and regulatory provisions that discriminate against women with the aim of modifying them. This, he said, included prohibition of FGM, child marriage and sexual harassment. It would also authorise safe abortion for girls, in cases of rape and incest under the Children’s Code. He invited civil society organisations to strengthen the synergy of actions in order to advocate for the adoption of current reform projects.

Continued: https://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/senegal-laws-on-abortion-and-other-girls-and-womens-rights-to-be-amended/


Activists: Senegal’s Abortion Laws Lead Women to Infanticide, Prison

Activists: Senegal's Abortion Laws Lead Women to Infanticide, Prison

June 14, 2018
Sofia Christensen

Infanticide is the second most important cause of female incarceration in Senegal. Rights groups, who have raised concern over the conditions of women's detention, blame the country's restrictive laws on abortion. Many are calling on the government to loosen its legislation.

Aminata, a name she chose to hide her true identity, was asleep with her two youngest children when police came to her home in the town of Mbour in the middle of the night.

Continued: https://www.voanews.com/a/activists-senegal-abortion-laws-lead-women-to-infanticide-prison/4438964.html


Senegal’s harsh abortion law imprisons women and girls

Senegal’s harsh abortion law imprisons women and girls

By News Ghana
Apr 26, 2018

Senegal’s criminal code completely prohibits abortion, while the Code of Medical Ethics allows an abortion if three doctors agree that the procedure is necessary to save the woman’s life. This is so stringent that the possibility of a legal abortion is very rare.[1] Ultimately, almost no one succeeds, forcing women to turn to unsafe options – carrying risks of complications, imprisonment, and social stigma.

Fatou Kiné Camara, President of the Association des Juristes Sénégalaises (Association of Women Jurists/AJS), who work to promote and extend the legal rights of Senegalese women,[2] stresses: “Poor people in Senegal are lucky if they see one doctor in their lifetime, let alone three.”[3]

Continued: https://www.newsghana.com.gh/senegals-harsh-abortion-law-imprisons-women-and-girls/


Senegal: The law, trials and imprisonment for abortion

FEATURE - Senegal: The law, trials and imprisonment for abortion
24 April 2018
International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion

by Nandini Archer, Alice Finden, Hannah Pearson
Edited by Marge Berer

Introduction

The law on abortion in Senegal is both restrictive and unclear. Although the country’s criminal code completely prohibits pregnancy termination, the Code of Medical Ethics allows an abortion if three doctors agree that the procedure is necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life. Given these circumstances, almost no abortions are legal and unsafe abortion leads to a high maternal mortality ratio. A combination of an inherited colonial penal code, and the influence of religion and social stigma, mean that despite continuing attempts by advocates to change the law, cases of sometimes prolonged pre-trial detention and imprisonment for illegal abortion and for infanticide among women unable to obtain an abortion, are rife, especially among poor and rural women.

This report looks at Senegal’s abortion law and policy, the prevalence of unsafe abortions, attempts to reform the law, the process of criminalisation of women, the extent of infanticide, and women’s stories, based on a range of published sources and valuable input from Senegalese human rights and women’s rights advocates.

Continued: https://mailchi.mp/safeabortionwomensright/feature-senegal-the-law-trials-and-imprisonment-for-abortion-24-april-2018?e=372dd34034


SENEGAL – A young couple, both school students, sent to prison for a month for abortion

SENEGAL – A young couple, both school students, sent to prison for a month for abortion
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Oct 20, 2017

In Senegal, abortion is illegal in all cases except to save the woman’s life; approval for inducing “therapeutic abortions” must come from three doctors, one of whom is independently assigned by the courts. Giving advice on where or how to access abortion is a criminal offence. There were an estimated 51,500 abortions in Senegal in 2012, and virtually all of them were clandestine and unsafe, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Seventy-three per cent of poor, rural women who underwent abortions had complications, compared to a third of non-poor, urban women.

According to the Senegalese Association of Women Lawyers (AJS), 16% of women in prison in Senegal are there for infanticide – including some who got pregnant following rape. One example is Ina, who was working as a domestic at the age of 16 and was raped by a security guard in the neighbourhood where she worked. She delivered alone in her mother’s home and left the dead baby in an unfinished building nearby. The police knocked on her door a few days later. She spent five years in jail.

The AJS recorded 153 cases of women in prison for this reason, with the support of the Regional Office for West Africa of the UN Human Rights Office during joint visits to the five prisons in Senegal that hold the majority of female detainees. According to the Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (FIDH), another 22% are in prison for illegal abortion. From 2013 to 2014, the Family Child Guidance Centre recorded 420 cases of sexual abuse of girls aged 7 to 14 years. Nearly 30% of them became pregnant and, abortion not being permitted, 10-15% of them had to undergo a caesarean section because of their young age.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall said in 2015 that he may eventually support legalization of abortion in cases of rape or incest.

In September 2017, the Tribunal de Grande Instance of Dakar jailed a teenage boy and his girlfriend, both secondary school pupils, for the crimes of abortion and complicity in abortion. Without informing their parents, for fear of reprisal, the two ended their four-month pregnancy in August using a medication called “Sittotem” purchased from a clandestine pharmacy. The girl began to bleed heavily and was taken to hospital. In court, their lawyers asked for clemency so that they could continue in school. They were convicted, however, and given a month in prison each.

SOURCES: Leral.net, by Kady Faty, Ousseynou Wade, 22 September 2017 ; New Yorker, by Allyn Gaestrel & Ricci Shryock, 1 October 2017 ; OHCHR/PHOTO, 13 March 2015 ; FIDH, 28 November 2014

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Source: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/senegal-a-young-couple-both-school-students-sent-to-prison-for-a-month-for-abortion/


The Price of Senegal’s Strict Anti-Abortion Laws

The Price of Senegal’s Strict Anti-Abortion Laws

By Allyn Gaestel and Ricci Shryock
Oct 1, 2017

The Mbeubeuss landfill, on the outskirts of the Senegalese capital, Dakar, feels almost volcanic to visitors. Mountainous piles of waste encircle wide craters, where trash fires spew smoke and spit ash into the sky. The odor is nauseating: decaying foods and clothes, burnt plastic and tires. Sporadically, the scent of decomposing human flesh emerges from the fetor. The bodies are those of unwanted newborn children discarded in the city, gathered by trash collectors, and found by workers at the dump. El Hajj Diallo, the president of the landfill's collective of waste pickers, told us that, because he has found so many dead babies here, he wants Senegal to legalize abortion, at least for victims of rape and incest.

Continued at source: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-price-of-senegals-strict-anti-abortion-laws


In Senegal, cases of infanticide raise the question of legalisation of abortion

SENEGAL – In Senegal, cases of infanticide raise the question of legalisation of abortion
by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
Sept 22, 2017

Newborn infants found dead, often in public places, are most of the time the outcome of rape, incest or adultery. In February, the body of a three-day-old baby was found in a plastic bag under a truck in the parking lot of the Stadium Léopold-Sédar-Senghor in Dakar. In the same month, another was found in a market gardeners’ stall. In the past two years, 14 similar cases have been identified in garbage dumps, and body parts of others have been found that may have been eaten by wild dogs. Each case is now recorded and reported to the police.

These cases reveal a worrying phenomenon in Senegal: infanticide.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/senegal-cases-of-infanticide-raise-the-question-of-legalisation-of-abortion/


The Association of Women Jurists of Senegal Pressure Government

The Association of Women Jurists of Senegal Pressure Government
by Safe Abortion
Feb 10, 2017

The Association of Women Jurists of Senegal continue to put pressure on the government for abortion to be legalised following rape and incest. Some 250 cases of rape of girls aged 13 to 18 years which led to a pregnancy in 52 cases  were reported in the first 11 months of 2016 in Senegal. Of those, at least 25 were cases of incest followed by pregnancy, yet abortion on the grounds of rape and incest is not permitted. “This situation is grave,” said the President of the Association, Mme Fanta Ndiaye Gueye. She called on the government to reconsider its position without delay by implementing a change in the law. She pointed out that Senegal signed the Maputo Protocol  in 2014, which also calls for abortion to be made legal and safe on a number of grounds, including following rape and incest. The Association of Women Jurists has made it a goal to convince the whole society of the justice of this cause, but the road is a long one, not least due to the conservative opposition from both Muslim and Christian religious figures.

SOURCE: Le 360 Afrique.com,  by Mar Bassine, 4 February 2017 ; PHOTO

SEE ALSO: Senegal: avec plus de 50.000 avortements clandestins par an, faut-il autoriser l’IVG?, 20 October 2016

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Source: International Campaign for women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/the-association-of-women-jurists-of-senegal-pressure-government/


Clinics for World’s Vulnerable Brace for Trump’s Anti-Abortion Cuts

Clinics for World’s Vulnerable Brace for Trump’s Anti-Abortion Cuts

By DIONNE SEARCEY, NORIMITSU ONISHI and SOMINI SENGUPTA
JAN. 26, 2017

DAKAR, Senegal — The clinic, tucked discreetly inside the student health center on the University of Dakar campus, prescribes birth control pills, hands out condoms and answers questions about sex that young women are nervous about asking in this conservative Muslim country.

The clinic performs no abortions, nor does it discuss the procedure or give advice on where to get one. Senegal, by and large, outlaws abortion. But for other health services like getting contraceptives, said Anne Lancelot, the Sahel director at the organization that runs the clinic, “there is a very high demand.”

Now, under a Reagan-era policy revived by President Trump, the clinic may no longer be able to count on aid money from the United States Agency for International Development, part of a ban on providing abortion counseling overseas that could curtail a broad range of health services, including those that go well beyond abortion.

[continued at link]
Source, New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/world/africa/clinics-health-care-cuts-abortion-trump.html?_r=0