Uganda Debates Abortion Bill to Save Lives and Money

An estimated 300,000 women get illegal, and often unsafe, abortions in Uganda every year, and almost 1,500 die as a result. But a proposed bill to decriminalize the procedure is being stalled by religious leaders and politicians.

Written by William Davies
Published on September 29, 2016, News Deeply

KAMPALA, Uganda – At 17 years old, and four months’ pregnant with twins, Dorothy knew if she gave birth her family would kick her out of the house. So she did what hundreds of Ugandan teenagers do every day and sought out an illegal abortion.

“A friend took me to a health clinic that is hidden away,” she says. “There were lots of girls there, around 15 of them … They were lying on the floor.”

The clinic was clean, she says, but the equipment looked old, and there was just one bed where the operations were carried out. “I was given an injection in my arm that made me go to sleep and it seemed to be over very quickly,” she says. “When I came around, I could see the twins in a basin. I felt like killing myself when I saw them.”

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Source: News Deeply