Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (Copua) has said it will continue to advocate the complete legalisation of abortion in the country despite facing stiff opposition from some quarters.
In an interview, Copua policy and advocacy officer Luke Tembo said providing circumstances for women to procure an abortion is not right because at the end of the day, they will still go somewhere to have an unsafe abortion.
“That poses harm to their [women’s] health. The good thing is to just legalise abortion completely so that those who want to go for it do so,” said Tembo.
He said it is not good that a woman should be allowed to abort only when she becomes pregnant from rape, defilement or incest, arguing that determining the occurrence of any of these scenarios would be difficult.
“A study conducted in 2009 by Ministry of Health reveals that 80 percent of women who procure abortions in Malawi are married and come from a religious background,” he said.
Making a presentation during a regional consultative meeting on the review of the abortion law in Blantyre last week, commissioner Esmie Chombo of Law Commission said the commission recommends that the law on abortion should allow the practice only on specific grounds.
“These grounds include to save life of the pregnant woman; where there is a substantial risk that the continued pregnancy will result in a severe malformation of the foetus which will affect its viability and compatibility with life and where the pregnancy is as a result of rape, incest or defilement,” Chombo said.
