Article By: Lloyd M’bwana
The 2015 general assessment study on the magnitude of unsafe abortion has revealed that most married women in Malawi are embroiled in unsafe abortion contrary to the religious teachings that marriage is a foundation of procreation.
This is a sample study Health Task Force on Coalition for Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (COPUA) released this week during sensitization on the current Termination of Pregnancy Draft Bill, 20 July, 2015 held with health workers including nurses, clinicians, midwifes among others situated at Bwaira Hospital in the capital Lilongwe.
The study revelation comes at the wake of heated debate for the call to modify and reform abortion policies and law to allow for more indications for induced abortion in Malawi.
The current position of the law is that abortion is illegal in Malawi except where it is performed to save the life of the pregnant woman through a surgical operation.
The 2015 Special Law Commission (SLC) resolved and agreed that abortion law in Malawi should be liberalized (that is, conditional relaxation of the restrictions) as opposed to decriminalization to cater for certain justifiable instances where termination of a pregnancy should permissible.
The report titled, “Addressing unsafe abortion in Malawi”, aimed at exploring the socio-demographic characteristics of women who seek abortion services, determining e the incidence and types of complications as a result of unsafe abortions and estimating the incidence of induced abortions in Malawi.
The research revealed that there is over 100,000 induced abortions done annually and 17% of maternal mortality is attributed to unsafe abortion.
The study shows that over 33,000 women are treated annually for induced abortion complications in health facilities such that 8 of 10 women involved in the unsafe abortion are married between the ages of 20 to 25 years.
For instance at Bwaila Hospital which has a catchment population total of 1,844,679,223 only in 2015, 91% of all admissions in Gynecological ward were abortions (2599 all admission, 2386 abortions).
The report revealed that 1,126 underwent through Manual Vascular Assimilations (MVAs) and about 1,286 were under evacuation with only two women died of abortion.
The study further notes that harmful objects and substances including alligators, pepper, bleach (JIK), chalk, alum, cassava plant, Bahaman grass, Quinine are used for unsafe abortion eventually in extreme situations result into horrible effects such as a putrefied uterus removal and intestine sticking out on women’s vagina.
The Maravi Post caught up with Flemmings Nkhandwe, COPUA-Health Taskforce Chairperson on the prospects of magnitude of abortion and the current status of draft bill saying most women married are embroiled in unsafe abortion on social and economic grounds which the bill prohibits them to terminate pregnancy.
Nkhandwe observed that there is low uptake on family planning methods among married women who end up in having unplanned pregnancies eventually resorting unsafe abortion as the safe abortion is expensive hence the need for modification of law and policies.
“Most unsafe abortions are done on social and economic grounds not necessary medical as the current bill under draft stipulates. Cases of rape, incest, defilement aren’t many in Malawi to warrant safe abortion. Those opting for unsafe abortions are doing it willingly and on their own. It means that the law is missing the right target on its formulation. This is the reason we are calling the redrafting the bill to look into this issue before it’s taken to Parliament”, appeals Nkhandwe.
Echoing on the same, Sophie Gumbo, Post Abortion Committee (PAC) coordinator for Lilongwe emphasized the need for the draft bill to modify on penalties for health workers and the clients arguing that it was unfair to charge heavily medical practitioner upon failure to administer abortion while the patient went unpunished.
“The current bill is very punitive to health workers who might their conscious prohibit them to carry safe abortion. The penalties should equally balance with the patients for their own actions. MK3 million and three years is just too much for us to pay.
This is a burden for health worker which will likely many abandoning the job for fear of being punished upon failure to terminate the pregnancy”, worried Gumbo.
COPUA-Health Taskforce is in a countrywide sensitization tour for public health workers on the current abortion bill in a bid to solicit views for proper input before it’s presented to Malawi Parliament for amendment.
So, far 300 health workers have been reached in Lilongwe (Bwaira) Salima, Mzuzu, Karonga Zomba, Queens Hospital, and Dedza district among others.
Malawi still remains Southern Africans’ country with high mortality rate due to its archaic law which has been in existence for 164 years impinging women and girls proper access to sexual reproductive health services such as safe abortion leading them to resort unsafe abortion when unwanted pregnancy is conceived.
Current Malawi ministry of health’s report shows that 70,000 women perform illegal abortion yearly with 17% of maternal mortality rate as a result of unsafe termination of pregnancy.
When passed into a law, Malawi will be amongst African countries which have clear legal framework on termination of pregnancy including Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, Ethiopia, Cape Verde and Ghana.
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