Malawi: Enact Termination of Pregnancy Bill to Reduce Maternal Morbidity and Mortality

CENTRE FOR SOLUTIONS JOURNALISM STATEMENT RELEASED ON INTERNATIONAL SAFE ABORTION DAY – SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

Every year on September 28, Malawi joins the rest of the world in commemorating the global day of action for access to safe and legal abortion.

As we commemorate this year’s International Safe Abortion Day, statistics from medical facilities regarding the number of women and girls experiencing complications from unsafe abortions show that the nation’s abortion law, which was passed in the colonial era in 1930, is not only out of date but has also utterly failed to lower the number of unsafe abortions.

As seen by the rising number of women seeking post-abortion care in government health facilities, the current law has only succeeded in pushing over 141,000 women and girls seeking abortions in Malawi to herbalists, witchdoctors, and certain traditional birth attendants where they suffer grave complications.

The statistics for the first half of this year show a persistently high number of women and girls experiencing complications from unsafe abortions. In Lilongwe, from January to June, 1,041 women and girls required treatment for complications related to unsafe abortions. In Dedza, 830 women and girls sought post-abortion care during the same period, while health facilities in Dowa provided services to 381 women and girls. This alarming trend of women sustaining injuries from clandestine abortions and subsequently arriving at hospitals in critical condition, some with ruptured uteruses, is evident across all districts and cities in Malawi.

The issue of unsafe abortion remains significant, and the establishment of Post Abortion Care Units in every government district hospital is one of the testimonies of this problem.

The solution to the problem of maternal mortality and morbidity caused by unsafe abortion is well-known and is articulated in Law Commission Report No Report No 29 titled Report of the Law Commission on the Review of the Law on Abortion published in the Malawi Government Gazette of 15th March 2016. The solution is to enact the proposed Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

We, at the Centre for Solutions Journalism (CSJ), urge the Malawi Government to walk the talk on the commitment it made by signing and ratifying the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol).

By signing and ratifying the Maputo Protocol, in terms of Article 14(2)(c) the Malawi Government committed to draft and enact the law that makes provision for safe abortions at least on the grounds of risk of danger to the life of the woman or foetus, risk of harm to the physical or mental health of the woman, in the case of rape or sexual assault and incest.

We commend the Malawi Government that it has started the fulfilment of the Maputo Protocol by enacting the Gender Equality Act and by drafting the Termination of Pregnancy Bill which currently is in the Report of the Law Commission on the Review of the Law on Abortion, published in the Government Gazette in 2016.

The time is now ripe for the Malawi Government to complete the work it began on the review of Malawi’s outdated abortion law by adopting the proposed Termination of Pregnancy Bill which the Malawi Law Commission drafted. By drafting the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, Malawi, as a state party to the Protocol, is on the right path to complying and ensuring that its law on abortion is in line with international standards.

The passage of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill is a positive development as it will bring Malawi’s legal position on abortion into conformity with that of its neighbors, particularly Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, which are all party to the Maputo Protocol.

It is a betrayal of women and girls who suffer from adverse health and psycho-social effects from unplanned pregnancies that occur under various circumstances, including rape and incest. The delay in enacting a new law for safe abortion as recommended by the Law Commission, at least within the standards set by the Maputo Protocol is a negation of Malawi’s obligations under international law.

The government should, therefore, seriously consider the plight of the women and girls who require the service, rather than the views of those who are not directly affected but seek to control bodily autonomy and the choices of women and girls.

A number of women’s and girls’ human rights are being violated by the lack of access to high-quality abortion care. These include the right to life, the right to the best possible standard of physical and mental health, the right to participate in scientific advancement and its realization, the freedom to choose how many children to have, when to have them, and the right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, as stated by the World Health Organization.

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As we celebrate this year’s International Safe Abortion Day, we urge:

* the government to expedite the enactment of the Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

* the National Assembly to allocate adequate resources to support the prevention of unsafe abortion by scaling up the provision of contraceptives and to continue scaling up postabortion care services.

* the Executive, the Judiciary, the National Assembly, state human rights institutions and civil society organisations to use their power and mandate to protect the realization of sexual and reproductive health rights.

*Religious and community leaders to vigorously promote abstinence among their members and subjects so that unwanted pregnancies, some of which result in unsafe abortions are reduced.

* All the citizens to remain steadfast in claiming their sexual and reproductive health rights.

Signed

JOSEPHINE CHINELE

CHAIRPERSON

REV MARTIN KALIMBE

BOARD MEMBER

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