Kenya – Mother at 14: The urgent need for contraceptive knowledge to curb teen pregnancies, unsafe abortions

Thursday, July 03, 2025
By Mishi Gongo

When 13-year-old Santa* from Maweni in Mombasa discovered she was pregnant, her world froze. Her first thought wasn’t about motherhood—it was shame.

She says she had failed to protect herself simply because she did not know she could. "I didn’t know where to go. I was afraid to ask," she recalls.

Misinformed about contraception, she took the emergency morning-after pill before being sexually active, believing it would protect her. By the time her stomach began to swell, it was too late.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/health/mother-at-14-the-urgent-need-for-contraceptive-knowledge-to-curb-teen-pregnancies-unsafe-abortions-5103510#google_vignette


‘We’re ready to fight’: activists brace as US anti-rights figures descend on Africa

Ultra-conservative campaigners fly in for ‘family values’ conferences to share tactics with African allies who oppose abortion and LGBTQ+ rights

Jessie Williams
Fri 9 May 2025

Advocates for sexual, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights in Africa are bracing themselves for an influx of some of the most powerful, ultra-conservative campaigners from the US, Poland, Switzerland and the Netherlands over the coming months.

The prominent campaigners, who all oppose abortion, transgender and LGBTQ+ rights, and are against sexuality education, are due to speak at a series of conferences focused on African “family values” and “national sovereignty”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/may/09/africa-family-values-anti-rights-conferences-conservative-christian-abortion-lgbtq-gender-uganda-kenya-rwanda


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/


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


The Terrifying Global Reach of the American Anti-Abortion Movement

Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They’ve been busy imposing their will on other countries, too—with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women.

Jodi Enda
March 18, 2024

Because Editar Ochieng knew the three young men, she didn’t think twice when they beckoned her into a house in an isolated area near the Nairobi River. One was like a brother; the other two were her neighbors in the sprawling Kenyan slum of Kibera.

Ochieng did not know the woman who performed her abortion. She and a friend scoured Nairobi until they found her, an untrained practitioner who worked in the secrecy of her home and charged a fraction of what a medical professional would. Mostly, what Ochieng remembers is the agony when this stranger inserted something into her vagina and “pierced” her womb. “It was really very painful. Really, really, really painful,” she told me. Afterward, Ochieng said, she cut up her mattress to use in place of sanitary pads, which she could not afford. She was 16 years old.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/179485/american-anti-abortion-movement-terrifying-global-reach


Yes, you can legally get an abortion in Kenya

Monday, October 09, 2023

Samson Mwita, a clinical officer, was in the middle of an abortion procedure at Mwera Medical Centre in Eastlands, Nairobi, when police officers burst into the operating room.

“The patient I was operating on was a minor of 16 years who had been defiled. Since she was in her second trimester, I had initiated an induction but the police officers interrupted me. They stopped the procedure and  told me that what I was doing was against the law,” Mr Mwita tells Nation.Africa.

Continued: https://nation.africa/kenya/news/gender/yes-you-can-legally-get-abortion-in-kenya-4394734


Kenya: The New Cold War Over Access to Safe Abortion in Kenya

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.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202209230002.html


What happens when abortion is banned? Lessons from around the world

As the U.S. Supreme Court looks set to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling that established the right to abortion, campaigners for abortion access from Africa to Latin America say the move could have devastating consequences

by Nita Bhalla and Anastasia Moloney, Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 30 May 2022

NAIROBI/BOGOTA - As soon as Kenyan housewife Ann found out she was pregnant in September last year, she knew having the child was out of the question.

For years, the 27-year-old had been a victim of domestic violence: her husband beat her routinely, denied her money to feed their three children, and had sexual relationships with other women.

Continued: https://news.trust.org/item/20220530084414-0ps54


There’s need to sensitise, train healthcare providers on emergency abortion services

May 19, 2021
By Evelyn Odhiambo

African laws largely restrict abortion with only 3 countries; Tunisia, Zambia, and South Africa where abortion is broadly permitted even upon a woman’s request.

In many African countries, abortion is restricted with a provision like: when the life of the mother is in danger or case of an emergency. Kenya is among the many African countries where abortion restricted under article 26 (4) of the 2010 constitution.

Continued: https://citizentv.co.ke/blogs/opinion-theres-need-to-sensitise-healthcare-providers-on-emergency-abortion-services-11490299/


Healthcare providers in Kenya cautiously welcome removal of Global Gag rule

23 February 2021
Sarah Kimani,  SABCNews

Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare providers in Kenya have cautiously welcomed the removal of the Global Gag rule, an American policy that prohibits foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs), who receive US global health assistance from facilitating or promoting abortion.

Also known as the Mexican City policy and first adopted by the then President Ronald Reagan’s administration in 1984, it has been repealed by every Democratic administration and reinstated by every Republican one since then.

Continued: https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/healthcare-providers-in-kenya-cautiously-welcome-removal-of-global-gag-rule/