In Kenya, abortion focus obscures legislation towards safe reproductive healthcare services

Tagged “the abortion bill”, the Reproductive Healthcare bill of 2019 is, in fact a comprehensive document

Written by Laila Le Guen
Posted 30 March 2021

Reproductive rights in Kenya is an intimate and emotive topic where hard lines have been drawn on both sides. Pro- and anti-abortion campaigners keep cycling through episodes of heightened attention when high-profile cases arise and passions continue to run high. Meanwhile, the country registers numbers of unsafe abortions that are among the highest in Africa. Maternal mortality is high at about 6,000 deaths per year, 17 per cent of them from complications of unsafe abortion.

Limited legal recourse to access termination of pregnancy is a potential compromise that remains contested, leaving the two camps with a status quo that seems hard to shake off. What's at stake on both ends of this fiercely debated issue?

Continued: https://globalvoices.org/2021/03/30/in-kenya-abortion-campaigners-obscure-legislation-towards-safe-reproductive-healthcare-services/

Women in Kenya Are Using Knitting Needles to End Their Pregnancies. Blame Donald Trump.

The president has given fringe anti-abortion groups unprecedented influence.

OCTOBER 8, 2020
By NEHA WADEKAR

On a rainy morning in May 2019, Dr. John Nyamu was attending to patients on the cluttered first floor of an office building in downtown Nairobi when he heard raucous shouts from down the street. A caravan of protesters was winding toward him, a few hundred people teeming in the streets, bellowing through loudspeakers, and stopping traffic.

As the crowd reached his building, Nyamu, a well-known gynecologist who performs abortions in a private clinic, peered through his window at the protesters below to make out what they were saying. It turns out they were targeting him. “Abortion is murder! Abortion must go! Nyamu must go!” Some held signs with photos of mutilated fetuses. Others clutched baby-size cardboard coffins with crosses on them.

Continued: https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2020/10/08/abortion-kenya-knitting-needles-donald-trump/

08.10.2020

anti-choice protesters

Austin Ruse

Bethany Kozma

C-Fam

Center for Family and Human Rights

CitizenGO

Dr John Nyamu

Esther Passaris

Family Health Options Kenya

Global Gag Rule

Human Life international

International Conference on Population and development

John Nyamu

Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops

Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board

Kisumu Medical and Education Trust

sexual and reproductive health

Sophie Hodder

Uhuru Kenyatta

UNFPA

United Nations Population Fund

US Agency for International Development

Kenya split over campaign to give women the right to safe abortions

Kenya split over campaign to give women the right to safe abortions
MP Esther Passaris says lives are being put at risk in a country where 40% of pregnancies are unplanned

Ginger Hervey in Nairobi
Tue 17 Mar 2020

The pills arrived with no instructions. Delivered on a Sunday to Joy’s home in Kayole, an informal settlement in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, by someone she didn’t know.

She had ordered them because she was pregnant, and didn’t want to be. At 19, she said, she couldn’t support a baby, and the father had stopped answering his phone after she told him. Desperate, she had asked an older friend, who said she knew someone who could help.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/17/kenya-split-over-campaign-to-give-women-the-right-to-safe-abortions

Abortion in Kenya: Everything you need to know

Abortion in Kenya: Everything you need to know

Author: Pauline Mwabishi
Dec 14, 2018

The ‘Abortion is a Crime’ reggae song is probably one that many of us have heard more than once. The song’s message, which is evident in its title, is that abortion is an act that should be shunned upon. The abortion debate is one that has been going on for a while, not only in Kenya but also worldwide. Various human rights groups, non-governmental organizations, and governments all over the world have not been shy when it comes to stating their stand on abortion. However, what we all ask ourselves when it comes to this topic is, “Is it ethical to legalize abortion?” Let us delve deeper into this debate, mainly using abortion in Kenya as a case study. Read more: https://www.tuko.co.ke/293876-abortion-kenya-everything-know.html#293876

Continued: https://www.tuko.co.ke/293876-abortion-kenya-everything-know.html#293876

Campaigners in Kenya challenge Marie Stopes abortion ban in court

Campaigners in Kenya challenge Marie Stopes abortion ban in court

30 November 2018
By Nita Bhalla, Thomson Reuters Foundation

NAIROBI - A human rights group on Friday challenged the Kenyan government in court over banning international charity Marie Stopes from providing abortion services, saying the move would drive thousands of women and girls to backstreet clinics.

Kenyan authorities directed Marie Stopes to suspend offering abortions and post-abortion care on Nov. 14, after complaints its media campaign was promoting the termination of unwanted pregnancies - a charge the charity denies.

Continued: https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/campaigners-in-kenya-challenge-marie-stopes-abortion-ban-in-court-18336919

Kenya – Board orders Marie Stopes to stop offering abortion services

Board orders Marie Stopes to stop offering abortion services

Sunday November 18 2018
By ANGELA OKETCH and SONI KANAKE

The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPDB) has ordered reproductive services provider Marie Stopes to stop offering any form of abortion services.

In what signals an end to the organisation’s positioning as the go-to facility for women with unwanted pregnancies, Marie Stopes has further been ordered to pull down advertisements that are deemed to be against the rules of medical advertising from its website and other mediums.

Continued: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Marie-Stopes-stop-abortion-services-order/1056-4856854-g4o7s9z/index.html