Health

New study encourages abortion reform in Malawi

By Lameck Masina, VOA

December 31, 2011   ·   34 Comments

Email This Post

The United States-based reproductive rights organization Ipas in collaboration with the Malawi’s Ministry of Health recently conducted the study entitled Abortion in Malawi: Results of a Study of Incidents and Magnitude of Complications Due to Unsafe Abortions.

Godfrey Kangaude was one of the researchers of Ipas. He said the study wanted to find out how many women are inducing abortions which can in turn lead to deadly complications.

“Part of the findings is that in 2009 alone 70,000 women had induced abortion,’ he said, “and we also estimated that the abortion rate is about 24 abortions per 1000 women of child bearing age. So you can see that this is a high number of induced abortions.”

However, abortion is illegal in Malawi except under circumstances where it threatens the life of a mother.

Section 149 of the country’s penal code penalizes anyone who performs an abortion to 14 years imprisonment, while any woman who solicits one can be put in jail for up to seven years.

However Kangaude said despite the penalties, many women still seek to have the procedure.

“[My] first concern is that the law despite being restrictive does not prevent women from accessing abortions,” he explained. “What just happens is that these induced abortions tend to be clandestine and unsafe (which results in deaths of many women).”

Statistics from the country’s public hospitals show that 17 percent of maternal deaths are because of complications due to unsafe abortions.

Kangaude said this means that the law does not support the reproductive health rights of the women but instead infringes the rights of these women.

“Because instead of accessing safe abortion services,” he said, “they (women) go for other services since the public health systems do not provide these safe abortions to women who need them”.

He said the danger is that most of these women develop fatal complications like hemorrhage, ruptured uterus and infertility.

The study has therefore asked government to consider liberalizing abortion laws so that all women should have access to abortion using safe methods from trained medical practitioners.

“For example,” he said, “if the woman feels that she has ill health and needs an abortion and if the pregnancy is as a result of sexual coercion or if  indeed the woman really feels that she cannot carry on with the pregnancy due to economic reasons”.

National Coordinator of the Islamic Information Bureau Sheikh Dinala Chabulika said it would be inhumane for Malawi to legalize the procedure.

“In Islam, he explained, “abortion is only allowed when there is proof from a medical doctor that the life of a mother will be in danger during delivery.”

Some people commenting on social networks like Twitter and Facebook say Western religious views were imposed on Africans during colonialism and do not understand why people still cling to them today.

They say it’s time for African countries with restrictive abortion laws to revisit them just as many former Western colonizers have.

African countries which have liberalized them include Zambia and South Africa.

Human rights campaigners say one of the pacts Malawi has signed, the Maputo protocol, supports greater reproductive rights for women.

Grace Malera  the Executive Secretary of the Malawi Human Rights Commission said: “The Maputo protocol has got an article that is subscribing to liberalization [not only].”

She said ” when the pregnancy is threatening the life of the mother but [also when there are pregnancies] resulting from rape and incest.  In terms of the human rights, that’s a right to health issue and we need to address it.”

But Ministry of Heath spokesman Henry Chimbali says government authorities are currently looking at the findings of the study before they take next course of action.

Tags: abortion, Grace Malera, Henry Chimbali

34 Responses to “New study encourages abortion reform in Malawi”

Pages: [4] 3 2 1 » Show All

1. 34

   zozizwa Says:

   January 18th, 2012 at 9:15 pm

   
   

   Nanga mabungwe ngati Banja Lamtsogolo amene akuchotsa mimba Kwathu kuno anawabvomereza ndani? Mayiwa akunena zowona. Now that government are fighting to reach the Mellenium goals and one of them is to reduce maternal deaths. We who are in health proffesion helping Che Bingu we are tired of seeing young ladies in Gynaecology depts of our Govt hospitals packed with Taitsikana totaya mimba.Kununkhisa ma wodi chifungo gu mwana wa mtsikana kununkha. Kuchulutsa ntchito. Aloleni azitaya mimbazo koma moyenera. Timitengo tachinangwa timatipeza kunnyini kwa ana amenewa. Zoopsa kwambiri. Ena inu mungokamba simudziwa, mawa mupite ku gulupu mukadzionere nokha. Palinso azamba ena amene akulimbikitsa mchitidwe umenewu oyenera akaziwika aziyimbidwa mulandu. Like 1 Reply

2. 33

   Francis Says:

   January 16th, 2012 at 9:41 am

   
   

   The results of the survey conducted by Ipas give a true reflection of the situation of abortion in the country. Whether one likes it or not, abortion is rampact in the country due to unplanned/unwanted pregnancies. Since it is criminalized, many women resolt to unsafe abortions which lead to complications and many disadvantaged women are dying because of these complications. Therefore, it is high time Malawi reviewed chapter 15, sections 149 to 151 and 243 of the penal code which criminalize abortion. The legislation was emposed on us by the colonial masters in the 1930′s and it has never revisited up to this day. Hypocritically, the colonial masters have actually legalized abortion in their own country. Taking into the current account issues of reproductive health rights which empower women to make decisions about their reproduction, there is a great need and urgency to review this archaic legislation. Legalizing abortion will afford women safe abortion services and ensure that there are no complications associated with unsafe abortions which are killing many women, accounting for 30% of maternal deaths in the country. Let’s save our dear sisters and mothers by legalizing abortion in this country as our neighbors have done! Like 1 Reply

3. 32

   jovic Says:

   January 15th, 2012 at 2:03 pm

   
   

   in Malawi we dont need abortion so whatever happens about abortion,its a sin to God and this is bullshit Like 1 Reply

4. 31

   mzara Mzukumizga Says:

   January 14th, 2012 at 11:38 pm

   
   

   MAi Malera mwangofuniko ma allowance’wo and the fat salaries. Deep down your heart, born in Malawi, you are not an atheist nor evolutionist! You know you believe in the Creator God, and He would have loved you served Him in some better way. Maphunziro wanu agwiritseni ntchito kuti mupeze nawo chuma, yet, to His glory. You know there is business in Abortions…that’s what IPAS is interested in, not Women rights. You may be a reseach organisation claiming to be independent, but where do you get your funding on such research, except, from those interested in making money from abortions? Its a Western model which always comes as an issue of rights, etc. Please Mai Malera do not sell your country like that. A Nyasatimes,You have basically told us the whole marketing ploy of these chaps but nont much from those saying no to abortion. Like 0 Reply

Pages: [4] 3 2 1 » Show All