Ester
Nagudi is a 13 years old girl from Manafwa District; she is tricked into having
unprotected sex and ends up getting pregnant. Ester has no option but to try
out an abortion since she cannot imagine herself facing her parents. A friend
she trusted recommended an elderly woman who asked her to find a cassava stick.
The woman peeled off the outer layer of the stick and told Ester to lie on her
back and raise her legs. She pushed the stick inside and pulled it out, only
blood spurted out but nothing else came with it. Ester’s life has never been
the same again from that day! This is a story of a girl whose life is taken on
a garden path, takes a complete turn for the worst and is made to pay for just
one mistake that she made (or was made to make). There are many more horrendous stories that
talk about cases of insertion of objects into the uterus, dilation and curettage
performed incorrectly, ingestion of harmful circumstances, application of
external form and various other methods of unsafe abortion.
I
didn’t think that abortion was a conversation we needed to have until my eyes
stumbled on that harrowing story, I was taken aback by the facts and figures. For
a long time I had always thought that the feminists and their great movement
were simply advancing an agenda that only they knew about, I actually thought
they were acting up but for the past few days and weeks reality has stared me
in the face. It simply never occurred to me that such horrors exist, I had it
all wrong!
Two
weeks ago, I had the opportunity of starting my internship program. This was
with a prestigious organisation called Center for Health, Human Rights and
Development (CEHURD), one that has for a long time championed the realisation
of health rights in our country. Its impeccable record in litigating health
related cases is second to none. Sometime last year CEHURD brought a case
before the Constitutional Court, asking them to interpret Article 22 (2) of the
Ugandan Constitution on whether there is a violation in the failure by the
legislature to enact a law that regulates the termination of pregnancies. The fact
is that we have no law in place on abortion but is our society ready to have
the law? It is this abortion file that I have been poring over for the past
fortnight and reality is beginning to check in.
There
is a very critical question we need to start by answering. As a country, do we
need to follow in the footsteps of our next door neighbors Kenya and Rwanda to
enact a law on abortion? If that is answered in the affirmative then we also
need to know whether we are ready to accept it. I have been a keen follower of
the debate on abortion albeit making little contribution and for every single
person who has claimed that it is not a law that we need, religion has been
their basis. They have argued that God doesn’t allow killing. They have also
argued that in case abortion is made ‘legal’ then there will be an upsurge in
promiscuity. I don’t intend to delve into the spiritual realm because it is one
that is complicated to fathom but let us look at the argument of promiscuity
because that is what we all understand. The law that should be in place first
of all is not one of legalizing abortion; it is one of regulating the
termination of pregnancies. The two are not the same, in fact they are
completely distinct. The English meaning of regulation is “controlling a
conduct.” That in and of itself defeats the promiscuity argument form the onset
because if you think women will become loose simply because abortion has been
legalized, you have it wrong. The law will be seeking to put down the various
conditions under which one can undertake a safe abortion. So their being loose
will not be because the law has been enacted. If anything, it will make them
more responsible! The Ministry of Health has itself realised that abortions
ought to be carried out, they are something that you cannot dispense with and
this is why they have come up with guidelines on the carrying out of abortions.
The question then should be, if guidelines can be issued then why not a
concrete law?
Many
have also attempted to argue that a child (born and unborn) is a gift from God
and therefore no one should take their life. That is a given and it is not in
dispute. But if a child is a gift from God, then should we also presume that
one that is as a result of rape is also from God? Doesn’t the argument become
self defeating because then it would mean that rape is no longer a sin itself
because a product of a sin cannot be a gift. I have also heard others argue
that you could probably be killing a future leader or someone very important. I
find this argument very shallow for these reasons. If one is a victim of
incest, would you rather have the shame and embarrassment of an abomination in
a family live with you for generations than do away with? Secondly, would you
rather save the life of a baby that you are unsure of than ensure the safety of
the mother you are very sure of, one who is giving the life and is expected to
sustain it until a certain age? These are all choices that we need to have a
conversation about because they are about the lives of our people; they are
about the lives of our children and the children of our children and for a fact
they matter.
At
the end of the day, one disturbing fact remains, there is no regulation on
abortion and the unsafe abortions will continue. Another Ester will become
wasted and the chain will go on. I think it is about time we had this
conversation on abortion.
