Joyce Namugambe
The Women’s Probono Initiative has called upon government to provide safe services to women who need to do abortion in circumstances when it is needed, so that they can reduce on the rate of women who die while carrying out abortion outside health facilities.
This appeal has been done following the Women’s Probono Initiative’s commemoration of the international safe abortion day which is celebrated every year on 28 September. It advocates for government to put into place policies and services for women in order to access safe abortion services.
While speaking in the debate on the topic “The right to Abortion in Uganda, myth or reality” with law students at Makerere University, the Executive Director of Women’s Probono Initiative Primah Kwagala, notes that women out there get more health complications and others die during the process of abortion due to the fact that they do it outside the hands of medical guidance since it is considered illegal.
Primah expressed that surprisingly, government recognizes that there are circumstances when a woman can have an abortion but it does not put in place the law to guide this. She added that the ministry of health provides access to post abortion care services, yet they do not provide safe abortion facilities to the women.
Primah therefore appeals to government to put in place standards and guidelines on when a woman can get safe abortion, where it should be done, who should be authorized to do it, so that the lives of women who die during abortion outside health facilities is reduced. She notes that according to government 3 out of 4 women everyday lose their lives during carrying out abortion away from health centers which needs argent attention.
The lecturer school of law at Makerere University Doctor Daniel Ruhweza emphasised that, abortion is not the problem on its own, but rather the factors that lead to women to carry it out as an option are the biggest problems that needs to be addressed, so that women desist from engaging into the act. He pointed out factors such as rape, Incest, early marriages among others which force women to carry out abortion.
He suggested that as a way of overcoming this, government should come out with strict laws against men who engage in the acts that drive women into unsafe abortion, since they are the drivers. He added that educating the public on the use of contraceptives is another way to help women prevent unwanted pregnancies which drive them into abortion.
The President Makerere Law Society Johnmary Kayiira commended the Women’s Probono Initiative for coming up with such a debate which is to help them as students to know more about the rights and norms in the society and expressed the need for more of such discussions. He added that this debate has helped students of law at Makerere University to get more information about abortion, which is to help them through their course.
The Women’s Probono Initiative organised this debate in partnership with Human rights and peace centre.
