Legal expert Mateyu Msisiya addressing the community members
* Poverty is a major factor that fuels the malpractice
* Women and girls still opt for unsafe means to terminate pregnancy
* As abortion is unacceptable, according to the Malawi Constitution
By Michael Martin, Correspondent
Health authorities in Blantyre have expressed concern over the increase in unsafe abortion cases that is escalating maternal mortality rate.
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Speaking during a community engagement conducted at Traditional Authority Kunthembwe in Chileka, Blantyre, Francis Makiyi — general secretary for the Coalition for Prevention of Unsafe Abortion — said poverty is a major factor that fuels the malpractice.
He said women and girls still opt for unsafe means to terminate pregnancy as abortion is unacceptable, according to the Malawi Constitution.
“Most women can’t manage to go to private hospitals for seeking safe abortion, hence opt to procure unsafe abortion using unsanitary equipments,” he said. “The Constitution and laws pertaining to safe abortion should be reviewed so that young girls and women can have access to safe abortion.
“Our women and girls will be saved since unsafe abortion puts their lives at risk and in some cases they end up losing their lives.”
In his remarks, legal expert Mateyu Msisiya said the country has registered 4,500 unsafe abortion related cases in 2022/2023, saying these are figures of great concern.
“We also have seen that Malawi spends approximately K200 million annually in the provision of post abortion care and that unsafe abortion remains one of the biggest causes of maternal mortality as currently 20% of maternal deaths in Malawi are due to unsafe abortions and most affected are poor women and girls.”
He, therefore, called for concerted efforts in lobbying Parliament to change the laws in the interest of saving lives of women and girls while also suggesting that the authorities must put much effort to sensitize women and girls about pre-family planning methods — such as use of emergency pills as one way of curbing unwanted pregnancies.
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On his part, T/A Kunthembwe also appealed to the government to review and abolish anti-abortion laws, saying the current laws are outdated and not in line with modern practice in the medical field.
“We have seen that records from the research done recently show that a lot of women and girls procure unsafe abortion in Malawi and that most women and girls develop serious complications including death every year as a result of such abortions,” said the traditional leader.
He also disclosed that Women Lawyers Association would engage a lot of stakeholders in the advocacy in a bid to collect more information representative of the majority population, hinting that one such group was that of chiefs who form a crucial aspect in shaping opinion at community level.
The Chief, therefore, confirmed that although the authorities are against abortion, still more women and girls are aborting pregnancies all the time with more of them being unsafely done resulting in unnecessary deaths.
The engagement drew 20 community members of T/A Kunthembwe, authorities from Blantyre District Health Office and block leaders that was facilitated by non-governmental organization, Young Voice of Malawi.
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