Kenya – Government suspends launch of reproductive health policy

BY CLAIRE WANJA
April 7, 2022

The Ministry of Health has suspended the launch of the Reproductive Health Policy 2022 –2032 and agreed to go back to the drawing board after pushback from a section of Civil Society.

The Ministry on Wednesday met with stakeholders from the reproductive health and human rights sector to discuss key reproductive healthcare interventions that members of civil society highlighted as missing or problematic.

Continued: https://www.kbc.co.ke/government-suspends-launch-of-reproductive-health-policy/

Will Trump’s anti-abortion Geneva Consensus fall apart?

The pro-choice Biden administration is very unlikely to support the declaration, signed just two weeks before the 2020 US elections.

Kerry Cullinan
25 January 2021

The anti-abortion Geneva Consensus Declaration, signed two weeks before the 2020 presidential elections, brings together some of the most authoritarian and anti-women regimes in the world – reflecting who President Trump counted as his international allies by the end of his four-year reign.

The declaration claims that “there is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of states to finance or facilitate abortion”. It declares that the ‘traditional family’ – meaning a married, heterosexual couple and their biological children – is the “fundamental group unit of society”, and each country has “the sovereign right” to make their own laws on abortion.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/will-trumps-anti-abortion-geneva-consensus-fall-apart/

Kenyan charities urge gov’t to quit U.S.-led anti-abortion pact

Nita Bhalla, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Nov 03, 2020

NAIROBI, Nov 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) –
An alliance of Kenyan charities urged the government on Tuesday to withdraw
from a U.S.-led international accord that critics say aims to limit abortion
access for millions of women and girls around the world.

Thirty-three nations, including Kenya, signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration
(GCD) – which was co-sponsored by the United States, Brazil, Uganda, Egypt,
Hungary and Indonesia – on Oct. 22.

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/kenyan-charities-urge-govt-to-quit-u-s-led-anti-abortion-pact

Kenya – ‘Dumped babies are just the tip of the iceberg’: The deadly consequences of curbing reproductive rights

‘Dumped babies are just the tip of the iceberg’: The deadly consequences of curbing reproductive rights

Louise Donovan and Nasibo Kabale, in Nairobi
13 November 2019

It’s a hot mid-August morning, and Lydia Wambui’s bright green overalls are soaked. She’s standing knee-deep in Nairobi River, using a metal rod to catch rubbish lazily flowing down its murky waters.

“Sewage, bottle-tops, needles – people chuck everything in here,” she says, wiping sweat off her forehead before adding: “We also keep finding babies.”

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/dumped-babies-just-tip-iceberg-deadly-consequences-curbing-reproductive/

Kenyan campaigners call for more investments in safe motherhood to curb deaths

Kenyan campaigners call for more investments in safe motherhood to curb deaths

2019-11-09
Editor: Lu Hui

NAIROBI, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- Kenya should increase budgetary allocation towards reproductive health for women and girls in order to reduce fatalities linked to unsafe abortion and unattended births, campaigners have said.

The campaigners who spoke at a forum in Nairobi on Friday said that robust financing combined with policy reforms and community-led advocacy is key to advance the sexual and reproductive health of women in the childbearing age bracket.

Continued: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/09/c_138542299.htm

Kenya – Health lobbies condemn anti-abortion billboards

Health lobbies condemn anti-abortion billboards

Tuesday April 23 2019
By ABIUD OCHIENG

A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) has called on the government to give support and protection to women and girls seeking abortion services.

The CSOs have particularly taken an issue with billboards erected in parts of Nairobi that portray abortion as murder and argue such blanket condemnation may lead to violation of women’s reproductive health rights.

Continued: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Health-lobbies-condemn-anti-abortion-billboards/1056-5083830-gdafbk/