Writing any article about abortion or any related topic without stepping on a few toes at least, is quite a hard task due to the fact that the topic has been a point of controversy across the entire globe.
The article chosen for analysis is titled “Africa’s abortion wars”. Africa is currently finding itself torn between embracing Abortion Act and rejecting it more than ever since many nations seek to draw up new constitutions having been governed by colonial governors for decades.
However, even though some African states, such as South Africa and Cape Verde, agree to allow abortion, the recent researches continue to question whether other nations should follow such practice. Below are the reasons as to why Africa is ill prepared to accept this practice despite the need to have it adopted and controlled.
Although Africa is making a gradual progress economically, quite a significant number of its citizens live in an acute poverty. Women continue to earn less compared to their male counterparts, being one of the causes why a lot of women, who seek to terminate pregnancies, refer to cheap back street clinics which are unsafe for women’s health. This is mostly evident in slums where unspecialized agents carry out this operation. According to York (2010),
Unsafe abortions, especially those done covertly or illegally, are one of the leading causes of maternal deaths in Africa, killing at least 25,000 women annually and injuring a staggering 1.7 million every year. Many are maimed or killed by horrific “home remedies” that include catheters, roots or herbs placed in their vaginas to Induce bleeding (p. 11).
This, therefore, implies that unless the living standards of these people are improved, they will continue to seek cheap ways in carrying out such operations, which have proved to be highly fatal.
Undergoing the procedure is going contrary to customs and beliefs that have been ingrained in Africans since time immemorial, although times have changed and abortion is no longer viewed as extraordinary among Africans. However, the disparity in psychological effects the practice has had on African patients as compared to other races shows that Africans are not fully prepared for it yet.
The fact that implementation of abortion laws in the majority of the countries in Africa has not been properly regulated is another indicator that the African continent still has a lot to do and improve as far as the practice of abortions is concerned.
Most African countries as of now, allow abortion only in limited cases, for example, when a mother’s life is in danger. All other cases need to be considered. Nonetheless, the issue whether abortion in Africa can be restricted only to these limited cases still remains to be questionable. Okeowo (2011), for example, pinpoints that,
Every sub-Saharan African state already allows pregnant women to abort when their lives are in danger and in recent years Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Swaziland and Togo have been working at expanding their laws to allow abortions under more circumstances. (p. 4)
Such practice continues among these countries irrespective of the cases falling under the stipulated circumstances or not falling under them. In South Africa, for example, one is likely to encounter adverts in bus stops, churches and even police stations notifying people of particular doctors who carry out such kinds of operation.
However, most of them do not possess any professional skills and do not have any medical background, as such, they play a major part in causing death because of operations on abortions; no wonder their adverts only provide mobile numbers with no physical location.
Consequently, it may be concluded that although there is need for a more comprehensive law regarding the issue of abortion, first of all, the African governments need to work hard in putting those already in use to full implementation, and eliminating any existing drawbacks.
References
Okeowo, A . 2011. Africa’s abortion wars. International Herald Tribune: The Global Edition of Newyork Times, p. 11-12. Web.
York, G. 2010. Africa’s deadly backroom abortions. The Globe and Mail, p. 4.