Sharon Buwerimwe
26 Sep, 2020
IMAGINE trying to have a safe abortion while the country is under lockdown with soldiers and police officers manning the streets to ensure no one roams around without reason.
On her way back home, Kayleen Moyo, (not her real name) a student at the Zimbabwe Open University (Zou) walked down the streets of Emganwini suburb, lost in her thoughts as she thought of more “lies” to tell police officers at roadblocks after her visit to a backyard clinic.
By EVELYNE ODHIAMBO
September 25th 2020
Without a doubt, abortion is a controversial subject in this country. It evokes a lot of emotion and receives opposition from religious leaders, conservative pockets of society and anti-choice groups.
Yet no matter how much we may try to moralise abortion, women and girls’ lives remain at risk. An estimated 2,600 Kenyan women die from unsafe abortions annually (approximately seven every day), according to a joint 2016 report by the Ministry of Health and the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC).
25th September 2020
Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Marie Stopes International, Nigeria , said on Friday, that, through its routine family planning campaign across states in Nigeria between January and June, no fewer than 7,516 estimated maternal deaths was averted, while 37,475 estimated child deaths was also prevented.
It added that no fewer than 1,279,924 persons across Nigeria used a family planning method provided through one of its service delivery channels which led to the prevention of 1,503,457 unintended pregnancies and 529,577 estimated unsafe abortion.
Sep 22, 2020
Malawi24 Reporter
Religious leaders under the Religious Network for Choice (RNC) in Malawi have expressed support for the Termination of Pregnancy Bill and have condemned assertions that those who support the bill are evil.
At a press conference in Blantyre today, the RNC members said individual faith leaders and religious mother bodies that are against the bill want to portray those that are supporting the bill as evil people who do not care about the unborn babies and their rights.
Continued: https://malawi24.com/2020/09/22/religious-leaders-support-abortion-bill/
Every person has the right to the highest attainable standard of health.
by HENRY MAKORI
21 September 2020
Opinion is sharply divided over the Reproductive Healthcare Bill, 2019 that is before Parliament. It has led to strong exchanges between supporters and opponents.
The sponsor of the Bill, Nakuru Senator Susan
Kihika, explains in the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons that the proposed law
is meant to actualise the constitutional guarantee that every person has the
right to the highest attainable standard of health, including the right to
reproductive healthcare (Article 43).
Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/opinion/2020-09-21-explainer-reproductive-healthcare-bill-2019/
September 18, 2020
Doreen N Kyampeire, RedPepper Editorial
Growing up in a typical African home, girls are usually told not to bring home a pre-marital pregnancy and boys not to impregnate someone’s daughter out of wedlock. This threat by parents and guardians poses a mystery to the African child of how exactly this said “evil” happens.
They are never given the full detail on how pregnancy actually happens. This points to a very large gap in sexuality education. The little information got is from the senior women and men teachers in schools which is usually not comprehensive.
Continued: http://redpepper.co.ug/2020/09/doreen-n-kyamp-oped/
By Lameck Masina
September 15, 2020
BLANTYRE - Anti-abortion activists in Malawi are protesting plans by the National Assembly to debate a bill that would allow abortion in cases of rape and incest. Malawi's abortion rights activists argue the Termination of Pregnancy Bill would help prevent the 12,000 deaths annually from illegal, unsafe abortions.
Abortion is currently illegal in Malawi and punishable by a maximum of 14 years in prison except in cases where pregnancy threatens the life of a woman.
Continued: https://www.voanews.com/africa/malawis-liberalized-abortion-bill-sparks-new-debate
Ogungbile Emmanuel Oludotun, University of Ibadan
September 14, 2020
On 11th September 2020, Daily Times, a foremost Nigerian Newspaper reported that the former governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Wamakko, lost his daughter, Sadiya, who reportedly died during child-birth. Sadiya died at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, on Thursday. It was sad that the 23-year-old lady died in event of complications arising from childbirth. So I wondered even the elite also suffers from maternal mortality? This is 2020 and we are still talking about the high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria which breeds death of millions of people who should not have died, most especially the first-timers.
Specifically today, we still talk of maternal mortality as a major risk for women of childbearing age in Nigeria. The country’s maternal mortality ratio has always stayed elevated despite efforts to curb maternal deaths.
Kenya’s reproductive health bill is under attack from internationally connected conservative lobby groups. Mumbi explains what’s at stake.
Ruth Mumbi
14 September 2020
I’m a community activist working in the informal settlements of Nairobi on issues of class oppression and the economic empowerment of vulnerable women. This matter of the Reproductive Health Bill touches me directly as an activist at the forefront of rescuing young girls who have been defiled or, raped – some have even become pregnant through rape. I’ve been working closely with survivors of unsafe abortion who get a lot of stigmatisation, trauma, are labelled with all sorts of names. I’ve also worked with sex workers.
For me, this bill empowers women. I was born and raised in the slums, so I’ve watched people that I know, young women that I even used to play with as a child, being victims – some dying from backstreet abortions, some getting complications, some ending up having to live with a disability. And I’ve been trying to get services. We are from a community where even getting access to information about reproductive rights is difficult. Women young and old, they don’t have power to even control their bodies, their bodies are controlled by men.
By Abel Abogonye, Lafia
12 September 2020
Society for Family Health (SFH) has urged the Nasarawa state government to prioritise adolescent girls’ access to sexual reproductive health services to reduce morbidity and maternal mortality.
The Northern regional coordinator, SFH, Anita Elabo at the closeout of the first phase of the A360 project yesterday in Lafia, said access to reproductive health services would promote social inclusiveness and help reduce maternal mortality such as unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortion among adolescent girls and women.
Continued: https://guardian.ng/news/prioritise-girls-sexual-reproductive-health-sfh-tasks-nasarawa-government/
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