New Study Encourages Abortion Reform in Malawi

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Medical experts say unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal deaths in Malawi<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">By Lameck Masina from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Blantyre</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malawi</st1:country-region></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The United States-based reproductive rights organization Ipas in collaboration with the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malawi</st1:country-region>’s Ministry of Health recently conducted the study entitled Abortion in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malawi</st1:place></st1:country-region>: Results of a Study of Incidents and Magnitude of Complications Due to Unsafe Abortions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“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.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">However, abortion is illegal in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malawi</st1:place></st1:country-region> except under circumstances where it threatens the life of a mother.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">However Kangaude said despite the penalties, many women still seek to have the procedure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“[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).”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Statistics from the country’s public hospitals show that 17 percent of maternal deaths are because of complications due to unsafe abortions.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“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”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He said the danger is that most of these women develop fatal complications like hemorrhage, ruptured uterus and infertility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“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”.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">National Coordinator of the Islamic Information Bureau Sheikh Dinala Chabulika said it would be inhumane for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Malawi</st1:place></st1:country-region> to legalize the procedure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“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."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">They say it’s time for African countries with restrictive abortion laws to revisit them just as many former Western colonizers have.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">African countries which have liberalized them include <st1:country-region w:st="on">Zambia</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">South Africa</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Human rights campaigners say one of the pacts <st1:country-region w:st="on">Malawi</st1:country-region> has signed, the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maputo</st1:place></st1:city> protocol, supports greater reproductive rights for women.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Grace Malera is the Executive Secretary of the Malawi Human Rights Commission.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maputo</st1:place></st1:city> protocol has got an article that is subscribing to liberalization [not only]," he 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.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">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. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

New Study Encourages Abortion Reform in Malawi

Medical experts say unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal deaths in Malawi By Lameck Masina from Blantyre , Malawi The United ...

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Former Zambian President Chiluba Dies

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><i>Delia Robertson | Johannesburg</i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">President Chiluba suffered a heart-attack at home after spending most of Friday with his lawyers and members of parliament. He had been treated for a heart condition for several years. Emmanuel Mwamba, his former spokesperson said he became ill in the early evening and his condition continued to worsen.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“His personal physician attended to him and he went into an attack just before midnight. His doctor tried to do all he could and sadly we lost the president at five minutes after midnight,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Chiluba learned his political skills as a trade unionist and was detained by former president Kenneth Kaunda in 1981 for organizing a wildcat strike that paralyzed the economy.  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">He helped found the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, or MMD, in 1990, leading the party to victory the next year in the first multiparty post-colonial elections in Zambia.  The MMD beat Kaunda’s United National Independence Party, or UNIP, paving the way for Chiluba to become president.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Chiluba began his tenure by allowing greater political freedoms and liberalizing sectors of the economy, and received accolades at home and abroad for his efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">However, his administration became increasingly bogged down by allegations of corruption and maladministration.  He also was the target of personal criticism for his lavish lifestyle, including his wardrobe of handmade monogrammed shoes and suits.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Chiluba won a second and final five-year term in 1997 but in the lead up to elections in 2001 he repeatedly proposed changes to the constitution that would allow him a third term.  A backlash from Zambians forced him to back away from the proposals.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After he left office his hand-picked successor Levy Mwanawasa instituted anti-corruption investigations and Chiluba was charged with misappropriating $500,000 to his personal account.  He was acquitted in 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">However state prosecutors also filed civil charges against him in Britain and he was found guilty of stealing $46 million in government funds while president of Zambia.  He was ordered to repay 85 percent of the money, but the court order was never enforced in Zambia.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Chiluba is survived by his second wife and nine children.  He was 68.  VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Former Zambian President Chiluba Dies

Delia Robertson | Johannesburg President Chiluba suffered a heart-attack at home after spending most of Friday with his lawyers and member...

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