By Isaac Salima
Nyale Institute and Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) have said there is need to raise awareness among community members on what the termination of pregnancy laws entail.
The organisations are of the view that there is need to address existing gaps in terms of who qualifies for termination of pregnancy.
CHRR Executive Director Michael Kaiyatsa and Nyale Institute’s Executive Director Godfrey Kangaude made the remarks at Chiradzulu District Council when they engaged community members and other duty-bearers as part of the implementation of a campaign on termination of pregnancy laws.
“We have realised that there are girls and young women who are not able to access safe abortion when they are eligible. For instance, victims of sexual violence who get pregnant are eligible for abortion.
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“But such girls and women are not able to access the safe abortion services because they are rejected when they seek them,” Kangaude said.
On his part, Kaiyatsa said they are supporting a case which is currently in court, about an 11-year-old girl who is seeking the court’s position on her eligibility for abortion after she was sexually “violated”.
“We would like to empower the people so that they can demand those services. What is happening in the country is that a lot of young girls are victims of defilement and sexual violations and end up getting pregnant at tender ages.
“However, our laws are not clear on what should be done when a girl becomes pregnant. So there is a question on the law on what should be done and we came together to conduct a campaign so that community members should know that we have a challenge on that,” Kaiyatsa said.
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Senior Chief Chikumbu of Mulanje District hailed the organisations for the initiative, saying the laws have to be clear on safe abortion.
“We are facing challenges in the communities because people do not know what the abortion law clearly stipulates; so we are hopeful that the campaign will help in addressing this problem,” Chikumbu said.
