BY MIKE KAMANDE
17-year-old Shira from outskirts of Balaka Town in Southern Malawi tells the tragedy that befell her about a year ago with tears rolling down her face.
“I was assaulted and brutally raped by three cruel men,” she explains.
She recounts that on that fateful day she was returning home at the end of the first term of her Form 1.
“I was walking home with my suitcase when three men emerged from the bush and assaulted me. After the assault, they took turns to rape me,” she narrates.
Upon arrival at her home, the same evening, with the support of her parents and relatives she reported the incident to Balaka Police who in turn gave her a letter to seek medical treatment at the nearby hospital.
Shira’s trauma reached its climax a month later when she went for a medical check-up where she was told the rapists had made her pregnant and had also infected her with HIV.
She asked the clinician to help her terminate the pregnancy, but her request was turned down.
“There is no way I can do that because it is a criminal offence. If I help you to procure an abortion, both of us will be arrested,” the clinician told her.
“I am a student and next week I am supposed to be returning to school. I never planned to be pregnant as you are aware I was gang-raped and worse still I am HIV positive, hence I need an abortion,” Shira said.
“I understand your plight, but I can’t assist you because of our restrictive law on abortion,” the clinician said.
Despite her strong arguments that she never wanted to carry a pregnancy which was a result of brutal rape and which would destroy her future as keeping it would mean losing her place at school, the clinician stood her ground.
Shira returned home heartbroken as all she wanted was to terminate her unwanted pregnancy and return to school to continue with her education.
“Why should I suffer from a multiple tragedy of rape, HIV and Aids, unwanted pregnancy and losing my place in secondary school? Nobody can convince me that it was God’s plan that I should be raped, become HIV positive, become pregnant against my will. I will terminate this unwanted pregnancy so that I can continue with my education,” she told herself.
After failing to get assistance from the hospital, she went to a traditional healer.
“I really feel sorry for all the suffering you are going through after being gang-raped. I know we still have many stupid laws on abortion, which we inherited from the British colonialists and maintain them. Because you were gang-raped and you never planned to have a child as you are still pursuing secondary education, I will help you,” the traditional healer said.
Shira was surprised that the sing’anga, a mere primary school dropout was willing to assist her when a well trained physician had refused to do so despite knowing the circumstances that led to her unwanted pregnancy.
She was given assorted herbs which she was told to boil and take at home.
Desperate to terminate her pregnancy, she prepared the herbs, the moment she arrived home and took the concoction as instructed.
Two hours later trouble began. She had abdominal pains and she was bleeding heavily.
Without wasting their time, her parents hired a bicycle ambulance and took her to the same hospital.
Shira was lying on bed before the same clinician who had refused to help her procure a safe medical abortion.
The clinician offered her post-abortion treatment and care.
The next day while still on the hospital bed, Shira asked the clinician: “What next?”
“I am supposed to call the police to arrest you and the traditional healer who gave you the concoction for inducing an abortion,” the clinician responded.
He was however quick to add: “I will not report you to police because I know you are ambitious and would like to proceed with your education. With what happened to you, I am of the view that rape victims should be allowed to seek medical abortion which is safe. The problem is that by denying such rape victims safe abortions result in them seeking backstreet unsafe abortions which put their lives at risk and contribute to high maternal mortality.”
But is the problem of unsafe abortion rampant in Balaka?
Balaka Police Publicist, Titan Chadwala, believes that cases of abortions are widespread but the only setback is that abortion cases are never reported.
“There isn’t even a single case of abortion in our Research and Planning Office records. Abortions happen but since people know it’s against the law they never report them to us. What happens is that rape victims come to report to us, but when the rape cases result in unwanted pregnancies, the victims procure abortions secretly to avoid being arrested,” he said.
Chadwala said the problem of unsafe abortion is a huge burden to rural poor people because girls and women from wealthy families can easily access safe abortions from their family private doctors.
Balaka District Hospital officials refused to speak on the matter. However, an unofficial source disclosed that the hospital handles, on average, over 20 post-abortion complications a month.
While Shira, the traditional healer and the physician who assisted her believes that the law should be reviewed so that rape victims can access safe abortions in hospitals, in the same town of Balaka Father Andrew Kaufa has strong reservations against such proposition.
“Catholicism forbids abortion except in cases where it jeopardizes life of the woman,” he explains.
“An ethical decision in sync with the Law of God whether at primary or secondary level need to be contemplated before it can be done. From a Christianity perspective, it’s wrong because even being HIV positive these days can’t be validation for seeking abortion,” says Father Kaufa of the Roman Catholic Church.
Another opponent of proposal to review abortion is Sheik Mussa Matola of Balaka Islamic Institute who says it’s deplorable for a Muslim to take life of any human being without the sanction of the Sharia.
“In fact it’s unacceptable to take animal life gratuitously as the Qur’an states that don’t kill any life which Allah has ordained sacred except by the demand of justice.” said he.
Balaka based Nkhadze Alive Youth Organization (Nayorg) executive director Charles Sinetre despite admitting the existence of the problem of prostitution and the resultant unsafe abortions, has reservations with liberalising such laws.
“We advocate for abstinence and safe sex. We have not been advocating for the liberalisation of abortion laws.” said Sinetre.
Despite that opposition from the church, Bridget Mbeya, a Form 4 student at St. Louis Montfort in Balaka believes that the current abortion law should be reviewed.
“The current abortion law is outdated and should be reviewed. Why should a rape victim be denied access to safe medical abortion?” she quizzes.
And what does Shira say: “The opponents of legalising abortions have never suffered the trauma and the consequences of being a rape victim. As a rape victim my message to government is simple – Let rape victims be allowed to access safe abortions if they choose to terminate their unwanted pregnancy. Religion and culture should not be used in such circumstances because religion never encourages rape. The law should punish rapists not rape victims as it is at the moment by denying them access to safe abortions.”
The author is a freelance journalist and university student.
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