By Mercy Kahenda
Feb. 6, 2023
After the initial shock and denial of finding out she was pregnant at 15 years, Branice, a resident of Musuro village in Baringo walked to Marigat Hospital to procure an abortion. Instead, she took counselling and enrolled in an Antenatal (ANC) clinic.
Once on her own, however, she opted to terminate the six weeks pregnancy as she feared she would drop out of school, and face the stigma that comes with teen pregnancy.
By Esther Kimani
Nov 28, 2022
As the world population clocked eight billion recently, more than 3,500 delegates from across the globe gathered in Pattaya City, Thailand, for the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP).
The conference attended by key women’s rights advocates from Kenya, including Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris, provided a global stage for countries, organisations, and individuals to make important commitments, celebrate achievements, and interrogate barriers to the realisation of Reproductive Health goals, including access to contraception.
By Mark Oloo
Nov 19, 2022
There are two undisputed taboo topics in Kenya – gay rights and abortion. We call them ‘non-issues’ and ‘alien’ subjects.
Society bears a natural love for lethal cartels and high priests of corruption but openly detests the gay community and survivors of abortion. At any rate, the abortion talk will raise sneaky questions about contraception and the age of consent. Then there’s the moral and religious ping-pong around it.
Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001461065/dont-sweep-abortion-talk-under-the-rug
Sian Norris
11 November 2022
Students and universities have become the latest battleground for the global anti-abortion movement, including in the US and the UK where religious freedom groups support so-called “pro life” students and societies and are quoted in Government reports on free speech.
Having previously focused their energy on faith-based groups, increasingly anti-gender groups are targeting youth communities. In Kenya and countries where access to safe and legal abortion is more contested, anti-abortion groups have been gaining ground among student populations, medical student and President of the Medical Students Association of Kenya Zebedee Nyakwara Motanya tells Byline Times. He believes women have the right to reproductive healthcare and sees first-hand the impact of unsafe abortion in the hospital wards where he trains.
September 27, 2022
Ramatou Ouedraogo, Grace Kimemia, Jonna Both
Safe abortion and post abortion care are essential health services. But until the publication of the 2022 World Health Organization (WHO) abortion care guidelines there was a narrow definition of abortion safety. In previous WHO guidelines, medical safety was the guiding principle of safe abortion. Safety, according the WHO, referred to abortion carried out using the recommended methods, by a person with the necessary skills or in an environment that conformed to minimal medical standards, or both.
However, research shows that many girls and young women do not search for medical safety when seeking abortion care. They prioritise “social safety”. This is the case regardless of whether they live in settings with restrictive or more liberal laws. Women’s priority is avoiding prosecution and social stigma.
Activist says at least 2,600 women and girls die annually from unsafe abortions in the country
by SELINA TEYIE
26 September 2022
More than 4.2 million Kenyans are in need of some form of reproductive health assistance to start or expand their families. This is according to data from the Kenya Fertility Society.
Human rights lawyer and reproductive health advocate Steff Musho said there are few concrete statutes and laws to provide dignified sexual reproductive services.
22 SEPTEMBER 2022
Inter Press Service
By Stephanie Musho and Ritah Anindo Obonyo
Nairobi — Fatuma is a 24 year old girl from Korogocho, an informal settlement
in Nairobi. She died in December 2021, from complications arising from an
unsafe abortion. Her friend and a few of her neighbors found her bleeding
profusely and unable to move. They rushed her to the hospital. Unfortunately,
she died before she could see the doctor.
Unfortunately, Fatuma's story is common for girls and women in Kenya. In fact,
at least 7 of them die every day from complications arising from unsafe
abortion. Worse still, is that with current trends - where 700 girls between
the ages of 10 and 19 are getting pregnant daily; the harrowing statistics on
abortions are likely to be worse. If Fatuma knew where she could access safe
abortion services, she would not have died.
BY STEPHANIE MUSHO
SEPTEMBER 7, 2022
For too long, sexual and reproductive rights in Kenya have operated in a vacuum. Despite the constitution providing for the “highest attainable standard” of reproductive health, legislators have failed to enact any legislation on the issue, shooting down a bill in 2014 and another in 2019. The outgoing administration of Uhuru Kenyatta has opposed the delivery of sex education and contraception to adolescent and failed to support teenage mothers.
This has contributed to several worrying statistics. Kenya has the world’s third highest teenage pregnancy rate. Nearly 100 girls in the country contract HIV each week. Over 2,600 women and girls die annually from complications arising from unsafe abortion.
Continued: https://africanarguments.org/2022/09/kenya-the-new-governments-chance-to-secure-reproductive-rights/
7 SEPTEMBER 2022
By Stephanie Musho
Kenya's sexual health rights are beholden to US decisionmakers. New legislators must take back control.
For too long, sexual and reproductive rights in Kenya have operated in a vacuum. Despite the constitution providing for the "highest attainable standard" of reproductive health, legislators have failed to enact any legislation on the issue, shooting down a bill in 2014 and another in 2019. The outgoing administration of Uhuru Kenyatta has opposed the delivery of sex education and contraception to adolescent and failed to support teenage mothers.
By Kamau Muthoni
Jul 12th 2022
A judgement in the US that ended the right to abortion has thrust two Kenyan cases into the limelight.
The US Supreme Court, last month, reversed Roe v. Wade, declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half a century, no longer exists.
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