How the Trump Gag Rule Threatens Women’s Lives in Nepal

How the Trump Gag Rule Threatens Women’s Lives in Nepal

By SUBINA SHRESTHA
FEB. 9, 2017

One January morning in 2002, I met 15-year-old Sita Tamang in a prison in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Her boyfriend, who had promised marriage, made her pregnant. Afterward, he gave her a pill to make her “feel stronger.” The pill aborted her pregnancy. Ms. Tamang was still delirious with pain and shock when the police arrested her and charged her with infanticide. A court gave her a life sentence.

In the late 1990s, 80 Nepali women were in prison for having undergone an abortion. It took Nepali activists three decades of advocacy to change the abortion laws. In March 2002, Nepal legalized abortion. Over the next two years, the women imprisoned for abortion were granted amnesty and released.

Continued at source: New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/opinion/how-the-trump-gag-rule-threatens-womens-lives-in-nepal.html?_r=0