I went to Hawassa
recently to direct a documentary video production. Part of the shooting
involved abortion clients in a hospital. We found a volunteer who was willing
to be video-taped while she was having a counseling session with the nurse. The
girl, who is in her early twenties, came to the hospital for an abortion
accompanied by her mother. They both look nervous and at the same time there is
so much strength about them. The girl tells the nurse that she is a university
student who currently got raped in the university compound by two guys &
she thinks she is pregnant. The nurse asked the girl when she last had her period,
when she last had HIV test, what kind of contraceptives she used and so on. It
is obvious why the girl visited the hospital, and specifically why she visited
this nurse, it is to have abortion.
In my personal definition abortion is the killing
of babies, nothing more nothing less! So it was painful for me to hear
the conversation between the girl and the nurse. At some point all I
wanted was to reach out to the girl and hug her that would be weird though.
At the same time my heart was groaning for the baby inside her.
When I was in high
school I remember a group who came to our school and taught about sexuality.
Most of all I remember the video they showed us about abortion which has always
stuck in my mind. The video shows the various ways of abortion. One of the
things that always stuck in my mind is a garbage can in hospital with little
hands, legs, heads of babies aborted. That set up my views about abortion once
and for all.
As I was standing and
listening to the conversation between the girl and the nurse, my eyes fells on this piece of paper on the wall which has a
text from the constitution of Ethiopia on abortion;
1.When the pregnancy
results from rape or incest;
2. When continuance of
the pregnancy endangers the health or life of the woman
or the fetus;
3. In cases of fetal
abnormalities;
4. Women with physical
or mental disabilities;
5. For minors who are
physically or psychologically unprepared to raise a child;
6. In the case of grave
and imminent danger that can be averted only through
immediate pregnancy termination
Till recently this is
Ethiopia's law on abortion. Any girl can have an abortion if she got pregnant
due to the six reasons above. No proof is required beyond the woman’s
statement that it has occurred. This means the girl I mentioned earlier
might not even be rapped. I believe, this is the kind of law that doesn't
forbid the thing but makes it seem as though it is forbidden, because Ethiopia
is a religious and culturally strict country with people who will not accept
legalization of things like abortion.
I remember the
controversy, the various appeals made by different organizations some years back
when the constitution legalized abortion, if for the aforementioned six reasons.
Later I talk to the
nurse; there is no way she believes this girl is raped. She even made jocks
that she has the physical strength to rape others let alone be raped. She then
told me there are a minimum of 30 clients who come to her every month for
abortions. Most of the clients are high school and university students. This is
like one abortion, by one nurse every single day and just in one hospital in
Hawassa. Imagine how many abortions are done daily throughout Ethiopian
hospitals, and there are so much more abortions done by traditional midwives every
day, that puts even the mother’s life at risk.
After drafting this, I
was talking with a friend and she told me the constitution of Ethiopia now
totally legalized abortion, that they just keep it quite because of how people
and certain organizations would react. I know one in seven women die from
pregnancy-related causes in Ethiopia, and unsafe abortion causes more than half
of the 20,000 maternal deaths that occur annually. I only wish we worked more
on contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies, and on physiological and
financial support on mothers who got pregnant due to rape, incest, also in
cases of women with physical and mental disabilities, for minors who are
physically or physiologically unprepared to raise a child.... after all it is a
baby that is inside these mothers, a precious life, a great potential, not just
a fetus!!
"Words
are things; and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought,
produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps
millions think."
- Lord Byron (1788-1824), from
"Don Juan"
"Lord Byron never finished his
masterpiece, the epic poem "Don Juan," but he might never have begun
it had he been conceived today. For Byron was born with a slight deformity
- a clubfoot - that nonetheless left intact ...." (Read more on Famous
people who would have been aborted http://facta-non-verba.blogspot.com/search/label/beethoven)
Let me just leave you
with few list of famous people who would have been aborted but survived and
greatly contributed in changing the world.
Could you please do me a
favor, whether you agree on what I am saying or not in this article, if you
recognize any of the following names, please copy and paste their name under
Comments, you can also do this on the shared link on facebook or twitter.
Thanks!
