Abortion is not a crime

For far too long, Malawians view of termination of pregnancy has condemned women and girls to either death or permanent disability. These are needless injuries and deaths that can be prevented if only we stop looking at termination of pregnancy as a crime, moral, faith or cultural issue-but rather as public health issue.

In the country, termination of pregnancy is legal but heavily restricted. It is permissible only to save the life of a pregnant woman. The restrictive law and the criminal sanctions are the main drivers of unsafe abortion in the country because women, for fear of the law, resort to clandestine and dangerous means to terminate pregnancies.

According to the Magnitude and Incidences of Abortion in Malawi, a study conducted by the Ministry of Health, over 70 000 women and girls procure abortion every year.

The figures are frightening and an embarrassment to the public health sector.

Without access to comprehensive termination of pregnancy care, girls and women risk their health and lives by resorting to unsafe abortion. Over 33  000 women, for fear of law and due to poor economic status, resort to terminating pregnancies either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards.

The country has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and the Malawi Demographic Health Study of 2010 shows 17 percent of maternal deaths are attributable to unsafe termination of pregnancy.

These figures are neither academic nor abstract. They are lives of our mothers, sisters or wives.

They tell us the hard truth that criminalising or restricting termination of pregnancy does not prevent women from terminating pregnancy but rather pushes them underground to seek unsafe abortion.

The sooner we come to terms with the fact that when a woman decides that she does not want a pregnancy, she will do anything to terminate it even if it means risking her own life, the better.

Unsafe termination of pregnancy mostly affects the poor while the rich-ironically the most vocal voices against proposed law reform-can access the service elsewhere. This hypocrisy needs to stop.

Against this background, I totally support Malawi government efforts towards reforming the termination of pregnancy law.

Malawi needs this law.  If enacted, the Termination of Pregnancy Bill will go a long way in saving the lives of girls and women dying to access safe abortion in public health facilities.

While I appreciate that there are a number of strategies that Malawi has employed to reduce incidences of unsafe termination of pregnanc,y including increasing coverage for contraceptive services, we also need to be cognisant of the fact that family planning alone does not eliminate termination of pregnancy, let alone unsafe abortion.

A liberal law on termination of pregnancy is a sure way of reducing or better still eliminating deaths and injuries as a result of unsafe abortion in Malawi.

We need to stop hiding behind culture, faith and morality to deny women and girls access to termination of pregnancy.

Neither religious teachings nor the restrictive abortion laws have persuaded women not to resort to termination of pregnancy.

The protracted debate on whether termination of pregnancy is morally right or wrong; or if at all termination of pregnancy is sin or not; or when life begins and whether or not foetus has rights – has not helped matters at all. If anything, this needless debate has just helped in fanning the flames of stigma that is associated with termination of pregnancy-the stigma that has pushed women and girls underground to procure clandestine and risky termination of pregnancy.

This debate has not helped at all in reducing deaths and injuries due to unsafe termination of pregnancy.

Unsafe termination of pregnancy is real and therefore demand practical and concreate response. Malawi need to decriminalise terminating of pregnancy. Let us enact the Termination of Pregnancy Bill now because abortion is not a crime but a public health issue.  n