The debate around abortion in Kenya is usually emotive and sensitive. It is also divisive among many people. There is an incessant conflict between anti-abortion and pro-choice movements.
Abortion in Kenya is illegal and many abortions happen in secret. Quack doctors carry them out, usually in secret, in backstreet clinics using crude methods. The procedures are very dangerous and they endanger the lives of women and girls.
Reports prevail of death from these procedures, often due to excessive bleeding and other complications. If not handled properly, they can also damage vital organs leading to lifetime complications.
Research shows that nearly half a million abortions occur in Kenya every year. Most of these abortion procedures are unsafe and they largely affect teenage girls.
Yet, if abortion were legal, there is no doubt we could easily save lives. The Constitution and the Penal Code criminalize abortion in Kenya and make it punishable by law.
Abortion in Kenya under the new Constitution
The 2010 referendum campaigns on the new Constitution showed the divisive nature of the abortion debate. On one hand, the pro-life majority proposed stronger anti-abortion laws for inclusion in the Constitution. On the other hand, the pro-choice minority opposed this move.
The pro-life majority carried the day after the Constitution made abortion in Kenya illegal. However, there was a compromise. A pregnant woman or girl can have an abortion if, in the opinion of a trained health professional:
- she needs emergency treatment; or
- her life or health is in danger.
The pro-life movement comprised mainly of the religious and conservative folk. They voted against the constitution due to this clause, which they said, meant to legalize abortion. Abortion in Kenya carries a huge stigma. One cannot expect the pro-life majority to vote for or attempt to legalize abortion.
The half a million abortions that occur in Kenya every year are just a tip of the iceberg. Many more occur but the victims or their families and friends do not report the cases. Therefore, the government does not document these cases.
Yet, many are willing to continue regarding the women and girls seeking unsafe abortions as mere statistics. This neglect or apathy leads our women and girls to dangerous paths that put their lives at stake.
The Penal Code on abortion in Kenya
The Penal Code is a collection of various laws that prescribe punishment for certain offences. It expands the issue concerning abortion in the Constitution in Sections 158 to 160.
The Penal Code in Section 158 says the following about attempts to procure abortion:-
Any person who, with intent to procure miscarriage of a woman, whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to her or causes her to take any poison or other noxious (harmful) thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.
Section 158 of the Penal Code
In section 159, the Penal Code states the following on the intention to procure abortion:-
Any woman who, being with child, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever, or permits any such thing or means to be administered or used to her, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.
Section 159 of the Penal Code
Section 160 that deals with supplying drugs or instruments to procure abortion, says the following:-
Any person who unlawfully supplies to or procures for any person anything whatever, knowing that it is intended to be unlawfully used to procure the miscarriage of a woman whether she is or is not with child, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years.
Section 160 of the Penal Code
For seeking abortion services, our women and girls risk seven years in jail.
Pro-life people are hypocritical about the sanctity of life
Those who oppose abortion, for most of the time, pretend to care about the unborn. They do not oppose abortion in Kenya or in any other jurisdiction because they care about the unborn. Instead, they only put on a show. Like The Late Comedian George Carlin says in one of his stand up comedies,
Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favour of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own.
Comedian George Carlin
He also calls out the pro-life conservatives for their hypocrisy.
Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no daycare, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.
Comedian George Carlin
George Carlin is right about the conservative pro-life movement. People who oppose abortion often do so because of the common prevailing biases and selfish interests. These people pressure the pregnant woman or a girl to keep the foetus but take off once it is born. They leave the burden to clothe, feed, and raise the child on the woman or girl with no help thereafter.
The pregnant woman or girl should have the ultimate decision on what to do with her own body. She has the right to decide whether to keep the foetus or not. Conservative pro-lifers use psychological warfare to dupe pregnant women or girls into keeping the foetus. Like George Carlin says,
They’re not pro-life. You know what they are? They’re anti-woman. Simple as it gets, anti-woman. They don’t like them. (Conservative prolifers) don’t like women. They believe a woman’s primary role is to function as a broodmare for the state.
Comedian George Carlin
### Is a foetus really human?
This question continues to draw heated debates. There is no concrete answer because what prevails is contradicting scientific, ethical, legal, personal, religious, and cultural opinions.
The pro-life movement largely says that “life begins at conception” and the unborn is a baby and is human. The pro-choice movement contradicts the same and largely says that the unborn cannot be human until it learns to function outside its host (the mother).
What shapes the progressive debate about abortion is often legal and scientific. The _Roe vs. Wade_ landmark case that the USA Supreme Court made in 1973 leads the pack. The _Planned Parenthood v._ Casey (1992) which reviewed the former also counts as an influential example. The two laws gave prominence to the rights of women as human beings over the unborn.
When people talk about whether a foetus is human, the issue of foetal rights arises. Foetal rights refer to the [rights of the unborn fetus](http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Fetal+Rights) from around eight weeks from conception to birth.
Laws in the USA and the United Kingdom have not historically **recognized the foetus as a person** with full rights. Rather, the laws uphold the rights of the mother and treat the foetus as part of her.
Despite that, sometimes the US law grants the foetus limited rights, especially as the pregnancy reaches foetal viability. At foetal viability, the foetus can survive outside the uterus.
George Carlin says,
But let’s get back to this abortion shit. Now, is a fetus a human being? This seems to be the central question. Well, if a fetus is a human being, how come the census doesn’t count them? If a fetus is a human being, how come when there’s a miscarriage they don’t have a funeral? If a fetus is a human being, how come people say “we have two children and one on the way” instead of saying “we have three children?” People say life begins at conception, I say life began about a billion years ago and it’s a continuous process…
Comedian George Carlin
Why the double standards on Abortion in Kenya?
Abortion rights grant women autonomy over their own bodies and being. The sad but ironical thing about many anti-abortion proponents is that they also oppose contraception.
Above that, those who oppose abortion in Kenya also oppose sex education for Kenyan children. Yet, ignorance about sex largely leads to illegal abortions in the first place among teenagers.
Those who oppose Abortion in Kenya reinforce the societal hatred against women. Radio host Renee Ngamau says the following about the double standards women endure,
They are wrong for taking care of children that men abandon. (Women) are wrong for not taking care of them. They are wrong for having unwanted babies. They are wrong for aborting them.
Renee Ngamau
George Carlin has the following to say to anti-abortion people,
So you know what I tell these anti-abortion people? I say “Hey. Hey. If you think a fetus is more important then a woman, try getting a fetus to wash the shit stains out of your underwear. For no pay and no pension.” I tell them “Think of abortion as term limits. That’s all it is. Biological term limits.
Comedian George Carlin
Nevertheless, why are men the majority of those who legislate against abortion? Isn’t this a good example of hyenas writing a proposal on how to protect goats?
