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Uganda women rights advocates have asked government to revise the laws on abortion saying it does not make sense for one to get to the stage of having post abortion care instead allowing safe abortion.
They urge that the reason there are many cases of death due to unsafe abortion among the teenagers is because young women and adolescents fear to have safe abortions and opt for unsafe abortions which in most cases lead to death.
“We have post abortion care over lapping unsafe abortion because you can’t tell a patient that she is at risk first expose myself to risk then l will be attended to that is where you see overwhelming numbers of women dying due to unsafe abortion, because they are trying to go for the next level of post abortion care.” Editah Kamagara a human rights advocate alliance of women advocating for change said.
Kamagara said that Parliament should organise this law because you can’t tell a person who has aborted that they have to be on my bed for health giver to help her yet you would have given me a safe abortion before post abortion care which comes after abortion.
“Why are we permitting something that happens after abortion and not permitting abortion,” she said.
“Young women and adolescents can’t go for safe abortion because they fear to be apprehended by the law, in the penal code, it criminalizes the whole terminologies used like abortion and miss carriage they are all in the Penal Code Section141-143” Najjemba Joyce Nursing Officer, Midwifery added.
Some officials of Mulago Specialized Women and Neonatal Hospital explained that safe abortion is illegal and acceptable under circumstances like advanced diseases, incest, rape and defilement
In Uganda we take abortion as someone having conceived and delivered before 26 weeks there are two terms its either abortion or miscarriage induced something has been done to remove the foetus
Unsafe is where you go to unskilled person whereas, safe abortion happens in facility under skilled person
“When they come to hospital before the expected weeks, some mother come with complex situations and that is when we terminated the foetus” A specialist from Mulago said.
Mothers with maternal diseases like high pressure, babies having fetal abnormalities mother having advanced HIV and also when it comes through unwanted pregnancies like rape defilement or Incest are some of the circumstances where we carry out abortions.
However, there is certain situations when mother may have issues like finance problems with partners and school dropout who want to go to the TBA or someone in the community who can help her by using local herbs, sticks.
Najjemba said women and young girls aged 15-49 come to the clinic to abort.
Post abortion care is a strategy by MOH that was designed to handle emergency care for client.
“If we receive a case, we welcome access her and talk to them investigate and take blood samples to check on infections look at the scan and see what exactly if she wounded the uterus examine” an official of Mulago Hospital said.
The mother assessment and treat after treatment we give them Family Planning services and look at the HIV status so that we treat and give post abortion care support mother
Complex like over bleeding when they haven’t gone to hospital injuries to the uterus.
“There are certain conditions where the mother come when they are bleeding and the baby is already dead, we usual get challenges in handling these cases” the official Mulago Hospital said.
On monthly basis mothers who come with post care are 40
A victim
The official of Mulago Hospital then narrated a case of one Nakato now in her 20s who got pregnant and at five months, she terminated the pregnancy at a clinic in Kisenyi a city slum.
“Little did she know that she was carrying twins, the lady carried out the abortion and told her to go back home. When at home the first kid came out but on the second one it was difficult she called on the neighbor who took her back to that clinic and the second kid came out and was given the bodies
“She bleed so much with two basins of blood one kid was still inside the stomach at the moment she has complications up to now has pain in the uterus.
It was in 2014 she was 15 years old at that moment; she now has two children though through operations.” the official of Mulago Hospital
, https://eastafricanwatch.net/ugandan-health-advocates-demand-for-better-abortion-laws/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ugandan-health-advocates-demand-for-better-abortion-laws
