Assistant minister of Health, Enock Kibunguchy has dared to tread where most fear to tread. Yesterday he suggested that the government should consider legalizing abortion so as to save lives.
According to Dr Kibunguchy who is a gynecologist, over 3,000 Kenyan girls die annually as a result of back street abortions where the victims only go to hospital when complications arise like losing too much blood.
Unfortunately, thousands more girls die in the hands of quacks at home in cases that go unreported and unnoticed by the same society which insists that abortion must remain illegal.
The argument is that if the abortions were legalized, the back street operators would not exist and girls could go to public health institutions to have their pregnancies terminated by qualified medical personnel hence making it safe.
Moralists say it is not only wrong to legalize abortion but add it is ungodly and must never be legalized whatever the case. The church's stand is similar and they add the best way of dealing with the problem is for teenagers and the unmarried to desist from pre-marital sex and wait until they are married.
This is off course the best way to curb the problem but matters dealing with sex are very hard to control since its taboo to discuss and many see the church's stand as not being practical considering the vagaries of modern living.
The church is also against the use of condoms and other contraceptives as this goes against Gods teachings on procreation hence the reason why the church still advocates for people to abstain when it comes to the fight against AIDS.
Scientists on the other hand insist that plenty of lives will be saved by legalizing abortion but moralists say it will only increase immorality and casual sex among teenagers since on getting pregnant, they will simply get an abortion probably for free at a public institution.
Currently the law only accepts a doctor to procure an abortion if the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother or if the foetus develops complications that could lead to a still born.
This being an election year and majority of Kenyans being God fearing citizens, the church's stand will prevail and abortion will remain illegal. The scientists and those proposing for the legalization for abortion might have to wait for a very long time to get a hearing.
A Kenyan safari of a lifetime at a price you will not believe.
Abortion is one of those topics that no one is entirely sure what their stand is. All the best to the A.Minister.
ReplyDeleteVery brave of the Minister to dare and say the unspeakable but truth be told kenyans are always unable to discuss such matters rationally while they are hiding their heads under the sand
ReplyDeleteA.S Byatt can be hard to read, but her latest on contraception (and by implication abortion) is perfect for Kenya: "... the Church's interference in processes he wanted believe were human and natural. (that included contraception. Human beings were not animals. They cared for children for perhaps a third of the normal human life. They needed to have the number of children they could decently and responsibly care for. Their sexual desires were unfortunately not periodic in the way of cows and bitches. Women were perpetually on heat unless, as in the case of his wife, the heat had been turned off. It followed that contraception was natural.)" - A.S Byatt, Little Black Book of Stories
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