Kenya – Health experts warn restrictive policy will drive more women toward unsafe abortions

Unsafe abortions, driven by restrictive laws and pervasive stigma, continue to claim lives and destroy futures.

Monday, February 10, 2025
By Angeline Ochieng

A few hours after leaving a herbalist's house, Mercy* started experiencing strong abdominal pains. A sudden, hot rush of a warm liquid running down Mercy's inner thighs startled her. To her shock, she noticed blood flow.

The 16-year-old felt a little relieved. Hours earlier, she had been a guest of the herbalist, and she knew for certain these were after-effects of the unsafe abortion procedure she had undergone in the company of a friend at her rural home in Bungoma.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/health-experts-warn-restrictive-policy-will-drive-more-women-toward-unsafe-abortions--4921212


Kenya – Act decisively to end preventable maternal deaths

By Sharon Tanui
Dec 1, 2024

Maternal deaths due to hospital negligence remain a glaring issue in many parts of the world, with many stories of heartbreak and systemic failure sprouting on a regular basis.

Many women around the globe, particularly in areas with limited resources, experience neglect. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many expectant mothers opted for home births, fearing neglect or the risk of infection in hospitals.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/amp/health-opinion/article/2001507350/act-decisively-to-end-preventable-maternal-deaths


Kenya Allows Safe Abortion. So Why Are Women Dying?

Wealth inequalities and a growing conservative backlash are combining to put lives at risk.

Jacqueline Kubania in Kenya
Thursday, 21 November, 2024

When Beryl Mueni first sought an abortion, the supposed doctor she visited gave her two pills for which she paid Kes 500 (3.75 US dollars). It was only after she got home and checked the leaflet that she realised she’d been conned. The pills were Clomid, which ironically is used to stimulate ovulation so women can conceive more easily.

Mueni, only 17 years old at the time, was determined to terminate the five-month pregnancy so she could continue her education. “I went back to him and demanded proper abortion medication,” she recalled. “It was then that he gave me a single dose of misoprostol to place under my tongue. A few hours later, I felt my stomach begin to cramp but that was it. Nothing came out. I resigned myself to my failed abortion and made peace with the fact that I would become a mother.”

Continued: https://iwpr.net/global-voices/kenya-allows-safe-abortion-so-why-are-women-dying


Kenya – Raising a child I never wanted — a product of sexual assault

Catherine and her child's relationship is strained, defined by poverty and the woman’s unresolved grief

Tuesday, November 19, 2024
By Tebby Otieno

On a cold Friday evening, Catherine (name changed to protect her identity) sits in her modest mud house, wrapped in a heavy Maasai kikoi and a frayed thread cap covering her head. A long dress falls over her legs, concealing the black socks and rubber shoes she keeps pulling up to fight the cold.

The house, in her telling, bears scars of time and the previous night’s heavy downpour. A gaping hole in the roof reminds her of the six months’ rent she owes her landlord—a debt she can’t afford to clear.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/raising-a-child-i-never-wanted-a-product-of-sexual-assault-4827678


How the U.S. Election Has an Outsized Effect on Global Reproductive Health

U.S. politics harm women by tying health workers' hands, even in countries where abortion care is legal.

November 14, 2024
By Christine Mungai, Harvard Public Health

In Nairobi, Kenya, Cate Nyambura is awaiting the outcome of the U.S. presidential election as if it could change her life—which it might. Nyambura is the director of programs at ATHENA Network, a global feminist collective that works primarily on reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDS, and gender-based violence. “We hold our breath when the U.S. is having elections,” Nyambura says.

Tuesday’s vote will have an enormous effect on how—and whether—Nyambura and countless other health workers and reproductive rights activists around the world can do their jobs. Thanks to a longstanding rule about abortion that shifts each time the White House changes political parties, every U.S. presidential election pits the American mood against other countries’ sovereignty—and the health of their women and girls.

Continued: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/how-the-u-s-election-has-an-outsized-effect-on-global-reproductive-health/


Why the American abortion debate is affecting access in Kenya

Oct 31, 2024
By Neha Wadekar, Joe Mwihia, Job Wander, Associated Press
Video:  8:42 minutes  (with transcript)

Abortion is a closely watched issue in this year's election, and not just in the U.S. As president, Trump cut funding for international groups that offer and counsel on abortion services. With support from The Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Neha Wadekar reports from Kenya where advocates are watching for who wins. A warning, this story contains accounts of sexual and gender-based violence.

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-american-abortion-debate-is-affecting-access-in-kenya


Kenya – Laws will save women and girls

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

What you need to know:
The cost of treating unsafe abortion is high.

Safe abortion does not cause long mental health consequences but on the contrary, there is a feeling of relief than regret, but forced abortion can lead to long-term distress.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/letters/laws-will-save-women-and-girls-4794978#google_vignette


Kenya – Groups push for protection of women’s right to abortion

Monday, September 30, 2024
George Kebaso

Civil society organisations have renewed calls for decriminalising abortion, sounding the alarm that many young girls are dying because they are procuring unsafe abortion from quack doctors.

About 10 organisations congregated at the Riruta stadium in Dagoretti South constituency to commemorate this year’s International Safe Abortion Day and raise awareness about safe abortions.

Continued: https://peopledaily.digital/groups-push-for-protection-of-womens-right-to-abortion/


Kenya – Haunted by abortion, failed by policymakers

Thousands of women are dying every year in Kenya due to botched backstreet abortions.

Monday, September 30, 2024
By Hellen Shikanda

As we drive along the backstreets of Kibra slums in Nairobi, there are shoes dangling on power lines every few metres. Everyone has their theory as to what that signifies; one of those being that the shoes are mementos for people who died along those streets. The further we drive, the more we encounter them.

While the crammed houses and uninviting narrow alleys between them exude gloomy conditions, there is a visible sense of vibrancy in the people when they are outside.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/haunted-by-abortion-failed-by-policymakers-4777778


Kenya – A decade of pleading: My exhausting fight for safe abortion rights

Unsafe abortion cases are contributing to high maternal mortality. The high number can be attributed to unplanned pregnancies.

Saturday, September 28, 2024
By SAOYO TABITHA

For a decade, I've fought tirelessly for safe abortion rights, battling against religious dogma, political apathy, and societal stigma.
The constant struggle to justify women's choices, share traumatic stories, and combat misinformation has left me physically, emotionally, and mentally drained.
Now, as I reflect on the lives lost and the toll this fight has taken on me, I realise I need others to take up the cause while I step back to mourn.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/a-decade-of-pleading-my-exhausting-fight-for-safe-abortion-rights-4775410