Beatrice Wajiku was not a typical 14-year-old. Like most young
girls, she enjoyed playing in the neighborhood and sharing secrets with
friends. But unlike most teenagers she was the primary breadwinner for a
family that had been wholly devastated by unbelievable poverty, crime,
and tragic illness.
Her father had died of AIDS and tuberculosis. Her brother and his
wife were also dead: Thugs killed him. AIDS killed her. Her mother—while
still alive—was incapacitated by two years of battling complications
from tuberculosis, including spinal damage and limited mobility.
Beatrice was left to pick up the pieces for the remaining family – four
younger siblings and two nieces. At age 13, she left school in Nairobi,
Kenya, to wash clothes for other women, and when work was scarce, her
desperation led her to have sex with men for as little as two dollars
per encounter.
Unsurprisingly, Beatrice eventually became pregnant. Adding another
mouth to feed in a one-room shack was inconceivable and telling her
mother about her pregnancy was not an option. So Beatrice confided in a
neighborhood friend who advised her to get an abortion. In a country
where abortion is criminal in all instances except to save a woman’s
life, Beatrice ended up seeing a friend of the friend to terminate her
pregnancy. No one knows exactly how far along she was in her pregnancy
or what method the “friend of a friend” used to induce an abortion, but a
month later Beatrice died from a dangerous, life-threatening infection.
While Beatrice’s life and story seem unfathomable to many of us, they
are all too common among the millions of women and young girls who are
driven to unsafe abortion every year. And stories like Beatrice’s remind
us of the fact that banning abortion does not prevent women and girls
from obtaining abortions—but rather forces them to resort to unsafe and
clandestine means of terminating their pregnancies, ultimately
endangering their health and their lives.
Today the United Nations’ independent expert on the human right to
health, the Special Rapporteur on Health Anand Grover, is presenting a
groundbreaking report before the General Assembly recommending that
governments around the world decriminalize abortion in order to protect
the health of women in their countries. In drafting this report,
Grover has examined the impact of legal restrictions on sexual and
reproductive health, including restrictions on abortion and access to
contraception and information, in countries worldwide. And he found that
laws restricting, and in particular criminalizing, reproductive freedom
have had a devastating impact on women across the world. The report
notes that these restrictions ultimately interfere with a woman’s human
dignity, rob her of her autonomy, and consistently generate poor health
outcomes, including death, permanent injuries, ill health, and mental
health problems—all of which are preventable.
While isolated voices and anti-choice lobby groups will likely
protest loudly and characterize this new report as radical and
subversive, the facts speak for themselves. In countries with
restrictive abortion laws, abortion rates are high, most abortions are
unsafe and women’s health and lives are frequently jeopardized. Take the
Philippines for example, where abortion is criminalized without any
explicit exceptions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, every year,
an estimated 90,000 women are hospitalized for complications from unsafe
abortion.
In the US, the death rate from abortion is 0.6 per 100,000
procedures, making abortion as safe as a penicillin injection.
Similarly, Western Europe—home to the most permissive abortion laws--has
the lowest abortion rates and maternal mortality rates in the world.
The recommendations in Grover’s report are not outlandish or
unfounded as some of his critics may claim. His research only builds on
what human rights advocates and experts have been saying for years. The
UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, has
found that restrictive abortion laws violate the rights to life and
health. Similarly, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, another human rights body, has recognized that restrictive
abortion laws contribute to unsafe abortion and high rates of maternal
mortality, and has repeatedly asked governments to decriminalize and
legalize abortion. Grover’s report also asserts that governments have
an obligation to ensure that legal and safe abortion services are
available, accessible, and of good quality. His suggestions that
countries must appropriately regulate abortion services, establish
available and accessible facilities, and provide training to healthcare
workers would significantly improve women’s health and save thousands of
lives.
What is radical—given the overwhelming understanding within the human
rights community that criminal and other restrictions on abortion are
unacceptable and the realities faced by women and young girls like
Beatrice—is that there are still governments that would resist taking
these steps to protect women’s health.
Decriminalizing abortion is not a political matter, but a matter of life and death.
Luisa Cabal
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