A MAN - MADE ADVERSITY: WHY DO WE HAVE TO MAKE OUR WOMEN SUFFER?

We all know of how strong and resilient the spirit of a woman is especially that of one living in a developing country such as our beloved Kenya: providing for her family with meager resources more often than not acquired through odd jobs, so that her family and sometimes including the husband can live better lives (the story of non participatory husbands is a long one, for another day). We all marvel at her strength to face all adversity….whether Natural e.g. Pregnancy and child birth sometimes without a skilled birth attendant and Man Made ones e.g. discriminatory laws, religious and cultural shackles.

This suggestion that a section of our society swears by i.e. ‘LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION’ is what I would like to call a Man – Made Adversity that only serves to make life for our women even harder. On the other hand, the draft constitution tries to ensure everyone’s rights to life are upheld without infringement through Section 35 (a) that states ‘EVERY PERSON HAS THE RIGHT TO LIFE’. The former statement, a doctrinal one with no scientific or even religious consensus if included will have a woman’s right to life put under some serious jeopardy.

Listening to the discussions going on especially in our churches reminds me of this time while in school (14 years of age) and our Christian Union (CU) organized for a ‘Rapture Film’ to motivate us to accept Christianity…that was the most frightening 45 minutes of my life. While still engulfed by the fear of ending up with marks on our little foreheads, burning while still alive and other demonic induced atrocities; 300 of my fellow school mates and I were offered a quick solution…all is not lost as long as we accepted Christ and the rest will be history. So we all did (got ‘saved’ that is)…how else were we to ever close our eyes and sleep at night. Looking back I wonder: was that the best way of convincing us to accept Christianity? What I know for sure is that it was not sustainable: for most of the 300 students that ‘got saved’ that night…I do not know of any that understood what they had gotten themselves into.

As I sat in church some 13 years later listening to the preacher go on about how abortion is a sin and all who partake of it will roast in hell, with a disclaimer that went something like: “It is ok though for it to be done when the mother’s health is compromised!”, I could not help but marvel or is it wonder at how things are still the same a decade later…moral high horses trotting around and achieving targets through fear induction…I also wondered: what was the difference between the 2 ‘lives’ that the preacher man was going on about:
• Firstly - the foetus inside the mother of 3 who got raped, conceived and is now traumatized so much that she can not fend for her 3 children anymore; as the thought of harboring ‘part’ of her perpetrator throws her into a suicidal and depressed tone and,
• Secondly - the foetus that can be ‘aborted’ without ‘sinning’ because the mother is ill…what’s the difference in the two ‘lives’?

To me the preacher sounded detached form reality with his mouth foaming while spitting contradictions and appealing to the congregation not to pass the Kenyan Harmonized Draft Constitution if the clauses of when life starts i.e. life begins from conception and abortion description are not in there.

The truth is that in Kenya, 2,600 women die each year from abortion and hundreds of thousands have to live with complications arising after procuring an unsafe abortion – a practice which 800 women undergo each and every day and come to us as healthcare providers to mend them (cut and tie up rotten intestines, removal of perforated uteruses). Legally prohibiting safe abortion (one of the safest and simplest medical procedures according to WHO) does not prevent women from seeking out abortion services; instead it forces them (the ones who have been raped, failed by a contraceptive method, the ones whom the religious institutions and hospitals have turned away because of doctrinal stands of life beginning at conception and many others) to seek clandestine unsafe abortions…leading to the loss of our sisters, mothers, friends and daughters leaving us orphaned (truth be told, we all know who are the pillars of our societies…if you do not know, ask your dad).

In ensuring that clause 35(a) remains as it is in draft constitution i.e. Every person has a right to life, we as Kenyans have a rare ‘twin’ opportunity to:
• Remove one more adversity from the lives of the pillars of our societies…that they may breath a sigh of relief even but for a second before they are off again to confront other challenges and,
• To achieve development milestones: issues of the woman are central in attainment of all the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDG’s) in particular the issue of Unsafe Abortion is of great Public Health significance and the attainment of MDG’ No. 5. a. that seeks to improve on Maternal Health through reduction by ¾ of the Maternal Mortality (unsafe abortion contributes to over 30% of maternal mortalities). For every woman lost unnecessarily, we loose a core resource of development and further moving us away from attaining the above goals.

A thought ran through my head: If I were the preacher that morning, what could I have done differently without causing a disservice to my congregation?

Protect the lives of women and girl in Kenya.
You should grab this opportunity and clamor for a special piece of legislation to be enacted (under The Sixth Schedule of the Harmonized Draft Constitution: Legislation to be Enacted by Parliament) to give guidance on: how abortion should take place, which guidelines to follow, who is eligible and who is not, and who can perform it and in which institutions). That way the constitution as a supreme document does its job to safe guards individuals rights of all without infringing on those of others (e.g. a mothers right to comprehensive reproductive health care) and leave specifics (e.g. when an abortion can be procured and by who to a smaller and legally recognized document – the legislation).

"In the present circumstances, no one can afford to assume that someone else
will solve their problems. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged." the Dalai Lama

Louis S. Machogu.