Guidelines for Reducing Morbidity and Mortality from Unsafe Abortion

Nearly 800,000 abortions occur each year, many unsafe. As one counsellor asks: if we deny a woman safe care and she dies from bleeding while the foetus dies, “who have you saved?”

Friday, July 10, 2026
By Moraa Obiria

The sunshine may soften Nairobi’s chilly, unpredictable weather or brighten the city centre’s newly laid cabro pavements.

But in the heart of one woman, Neema*, nothing can ease the weight she continues to carry, four years on. In 2022, the now 30-year-old woman from Ruaraka Sub-County last her three-year old son. “He had pneumonia,” says a tearful Neema. Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/when-choice-meets-fear-the-women-navigating-kenya-s-abortion-maze--5521556

Safe Access to Abortion Crucial to Reducing Maternal Mortality in Kenya
First Lady Kenyatta’s “Beyond Zero” Campaign Ignores Key Issue

March 14, 2019
Agnes Odhiambo, Senior Researcher, Women's Rights Division

Five years ago, Kenya’s First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta, launched the “Beyond Zero” campaign to eradicate preventable maternal and child mortality in Kenya. The initiative has drawn support and criticism in equal measure from Kenyans, and it has earned this criticism by ignoring a crucial aspect of women’s health – access to safe abortion.

A charity half marathon last weekend to mobilize resources for the campaign was met with wide-ranging criticism from Kenyans. Activists infiltrated part of the run to stage an anti-corruption protest, arguing that corruption and government failure to prosecute officials implicated in these crimes are the main factors behind Kenya’s failing health sector. Other critics say that the first lady’s campaign is diverting much-needed resources from the public health system.

Continued: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/14/safe-access-abortion-crucial-reducing-maternal-mortality-kenya