Parliament still holds key to Abortion Bill

In May 2021, Parliament rejected the Termination of Pregnancy Bill which seeks to amend the Abortion Law. Currently, the law only allows a woman to abort if there are complications that put her life in danger. However, the Bill pushed by activists since 2015, aimed to expand legal abortion from cases where the mother’s life is at risk to include rape, incest, fetal deformity, and threats to health. Three years down the lane, the Bill has not yet seen the light of the day in the August House. Our reporter PRECIOUS KUMBANI engaged the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Health MATTHEWS NGWALE to understand the developments so far. Excerpts

 Is there any hope that this Bill will be re-tabled in the House anytime soon?

It will be tabled, no doubt about that. I am not sure when, but definitely not in this sitting.

By the way, why was it rejected?

There was a lot of resistance from religious groups, traditional leaders and the general population and members of Parliament were afraid of losing their popularity in their constituencies. Most of them don’t understand the importance of this Bill. What matters to them is the constituency, so the constituency has religious people, traditional leaders and so many people who think this is a taboo. The society hasn’t accepted this and it is difficult for the MPs to compromise.

Then what makes you feel this time around it will see the light of the day?

This is why I have repeatedly told the stakeholders involved to invest heavily in awareness before they come to ask me to push this to the members. People have not been well educated about abortion. A lot of them say it’s killing and I mean, who wants to be associated with killing? But what we are saying is, we are fighting for abortion rights because girls and women are dying now. This Bill is aimed at saving the lives of our women and girls who have no option but to procure unsafe abortions.

Is this not giving women a licence to sleep around, knowing that if they get pregnant they will abort?

No no no. Right now people are sleeping around, sex is happening and that sex can result in unplanned pregnancy. Are we sure that when the pregnancy is unwanted the woman should be the one bearing all the consequences while the man continues to live as if nothing happened? Because even from a human rights perspective, it is not right that the girl should bear it all, the girl should not be disadvantaged. If the woman doesn’t want to be pregnant should we force her? Imagine, a woman is raped, heavily injured and traumatised, must she be forced to keep a child that comes out of that horrible experience?

Do your fellow lawmakers understand these issues?

Yes, a lot of stakeholders are coming forth, we are making progress. However, we need to engage the community, intensify civic education so that people at the grassroots embrace this and push their members of Parliament to change the law. The members of Parliament know, but they are afraid of their constituents because it’s a taboo. We need more radio adverts on this topic, we need projects that engage the communities in the villages on abortion. They need to change their mindset, speak out and demand the right services.

What’s your message to the people out there?

We should accept that people are having unprotected sex and from that sex, there are unplanned pregnancies and when that happens, the boy runs away leaving the girl alone. Because of this situation, out of desperation the girl could either commit suicide or opt for unsafe abortion, thereby putting her life in danger. So this is not about killing, this is not about religion, it’s about saving lives. This is my stand as a member of Parliament, I am strong about this issue of abortion not because of anybody or anything, I am personally convinced that I should do something about it. Our basic nurses and clinical officers were trained on how to conduct an abortion let alone the doctors, they have their regulations on how to conduct an abortion, all these things are in place, and the only thing is to allow the woman to go and procure the abortion.