Talking about abortion in Uganda remains a complex and divisive issue. Even the language “normally” used is highly emotionally charged with differing descriptors of the ‘unborn child’ or the ‘foetus’; the ‘pregnant woman’ or the ‘mother’.
Most discussions on abortion, have been focused on morals and emotions not leaving room to discuss the actual events, realities and circumstances rotating around the lives and reproductive health rights of women especially the young girls.
Let’s talk about the reality. Much as Uganda has taken great strides to reduce maternal mortality rates, the levels remain very high. According to the Guttmacher Institute, it is estimated that 310 – 438 women die of pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births. 438 women is equivalent to four lecture rooms filled to capacity by students assuming each class accommodates 109 students.
Zeroing down in on abortion, an estimated 1.2 million unintended pregnancies occur in Uganda, representing more than half of the country’s 2.2 million pregnancies according to the World Health Organisation. Such unintended pregnancies result in two main outcomes—unplanned births and abortion.
Worse still, unplanned pregnancies are higher among rural communities mostly characterised by poor and less educated women than their urban counterparts. This is because according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, only 26 per cent of married women and 43 per centof sexually active unmarried women in rural settings use a modern method of contraceptive.
About 300,000 induced abortions occur annually among Ugandan women aged 15–49, a rate of 54 abortions per 1,000 women according to a 2013 report named; A Technical Guide to Understanding the Legal and Policy Framework on Termination of Pregnancy in Uganda by the Centre for Reproductive Health Uganda. These rates translate to about 800 abortions being carried out daily with 1,500 deaths happening due to unsafe abortion. That is an equivalent of 85 commuter taxis in Uganda crashing to death every year and of course these are the ones captured. Let that sink in! The point is, unsafe abortions — the type of abortions executed by quacks without the required and adequate training or in a place without the approved medical standards — can lead to hemorrhaging, infection and perforation of the bowels or uterus and in most cases, death. This is the conversation we are shying away from.
It is prudent however to look at the some of the root causes of this– the criminalisation of abortion which has contributed to 26 per cent of maternal deaths resulting from unsafe abortion according to the Annual Health Sector Performance Report 2013/2014 by the Ministry of Health. This is because women resort to adopting illegal approaches and some end up dead.
More so, the same laws on abortion are quite complex and confusing. For example, a report on facing Uganda’s law on Abortion by the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development launched in July documents stories of women and girls who were defiled and raped and denied access to abortion services, a woman imprisoned for procuring an abortion and a health service provider detained for providing post abortion care among others.
All these stories have influenced how abortion is looked at by legislators, health service providers, women and girls in the country. It is this confusion which has left many of the qualified abortion service providers in a limbo of not knowing what they have to or not to do.
Even when policies calling for comprehensive abortion care have been rather enlightened in the recent years, their lack of a clear stand still presents an obstacle in clarifying the laws and policies on abortion in Uganda. It is, therefore, time to have a conversation on these instruments and assess their impact today.
But even when these policies are explained, they need to be widened to allow access to information among healthcare professionals and the public at large about reproductive healthcare, including access to family planning and safe abortion services.
Mr Nkonge is a programme officer at Reach A Hand Uganda.
ibrah@reachahand.org
0 comments:
Post a Comment