A local NGO is leading the first campaign of its kind to expand women’s legal access to abortion in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Maxine Betteridge-Moes
14 December, 2023

When 21-year-old Tre* found out she was pregnant, she was shocked and panicked. As an unmarried woman in Iraqi Kurdistan, she was using protection because she was not ready to have a baby. After missing her period, she went to a local clinic for an ultrasound. When the doctor congratulated on her pregnancy, she burst into tears.

“This shouldn’t be happening to me. You need to help me,” she pleaded to the doctor.

The doctor, in compliance with the law, refused to help her. Tre went to visit four other gynaecologists who she said rudely dismissed her. Eventually, through a friend, she was able to obtain abortion pills on the black market to terminate her pregnancy. She described the process as scary, humiliating and isolating.

Continued: https://www.newarab.com/features/kurdistan-feminist-ngo-pushes-more-abortion-rights