Too many have suffered under Ghana’s abortion laws. Ending Roe v Wade risks our hope for change

In a country where stigma, poverty and religious beliefs compound anti-abortion laws, a rollback on US rights will only embolden extremists

Bisi Adjapon, The Guardian
Mon 23 May 2022

No one knew she’d had multiple abortions. Not even me, a lifelong friend. “I can’t even count how many times I had to do it. He wouldn’t let me use contraception and he wouldn’t wear anything.” Sitting opposite her at a restaurant, I felt deep anguish. This was a prominent Ghanaian official.

She told me how my novel, The Teller of Secrets, had stirred memories she had tried to suppress. It was not the only shame-filled confession triggered by the book. An award-winning Ghanaian film-maker messaged me to share harrowing accounts of a Muslim woman’s abortions she couldn’t make public. Literary friends of mine have confided similar pain. Almost every African woman I know, mid-30s and above, has had an abortion or two, or more.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/23/too-many-have-suffered-under-ghana-abortion-laws-ending-roe-wade-risks-hope-for-change


Kenya – Abortion hypocrisy kills women

Abortion hypocrisy kills women

Patricia Nudi Orawo
10 May 2019

Opposition to abortion is so intense that even where women have the legal right to terminate their pregnancy, it can be extremely difficult to get the services needed to exercise that right. But, worse than that, opponents of abortion tend to ignore the failures that lead women to the point where they seek one in the first place.

From a moral standpoint, there is a strong case to be made for respecting a woman’s personal freedom and bodily autonomy, rather than forcing her to put her health or wellbeing at risk by carrying an unwanted or unsafe pregnancy to term. Yet, given how rife with misinformation and muddied by misplaced arguments the issue is, policy debates often go nowhere unless they frame abortion as a health matter.

Continued: https://mg.co.za/article/2019-05-10-00-abortion-hypocrisy-kills-women