HEALTH-NAMIBIA: Women Take Abortion Rights Into Their Own Hands

By Patience Nyangove
WINDHOEK, Oct 7 (IPS) Ten years ago, a move to legalise abortion in
Namibia failed. The number of unwanted pregnancies remains high, with many
people unwilling or unable to use contraception. Despite the risks,
illegal abortions remain common.

Misoprostol – a drug used to control ulcers, more usually known by the
brand name Cytotec – has become a favoured method for inducing abortion.

The drug costs around $14 U.S. dollars per tablet from a pharmacist and is
readily available on the streets of Windhoek. Medical doctors who conduct
abortions illegally using the drug charge between 140 and 200 U.S.
dollars.

Twenty-two year-old Monisha (not her real name), a student at University
of Namibia, decided to have an abortion because her boyfriend is a married
man and hence could not marry her.

"My parents would have killed me if they had found out that I was
made pregnant by a married man, who can't marry me," she
says. "I am also not ready to be a mother, I am still a
student."

She was two months into the pregnancy when, with the help of a friend, she
bought five Cytotec pills from a drug peddler in Windhoek's
Khomasdal suburb.

Monisha says she was charged $113 for the pills, and instructed by the
drug peddler to insert three of the tablets into her vagina and swallow
two. He told her that if developed any complications during the abortion,
she should not seek treatment at health institution but rather come back
to him for help.

Fortunately Monisha's pregnancy was successfully terminated
without any complications. "It was like a bad period. Off course I
felt some pain but I took some pain killers," she says.

Cytotec is classified as a controlled drug and by law should only be sold
to people with a medical doctor’s prescription, however errant
pharmacists are selling it to anyone who asks for it.

Merja* a pharmacist in Independence Avenue in Windhoek says she only sells
Cytotec pills to people referred to her by friends.

"You can't just sell to anyone because you don't
know who is a police officer or not. It's quite a risky business
but what can we do? We need the extra money and at the same time we are
providing a service to our fellow desperate women need.

"It's not like we are killing babies, I only sell Cytotec
tablets to those whose pregnancy is less than three months to minimise the
risk of fatal complications," she says.

According to Merja she buys a packet of Cytotec tablets containing 56
pills for the equivalent of U.S. $50 and sells each tablet for $14, making
a cool profit of 740 U.S. dollars per packet.

Merja says most of her clients are students from the university and the
Polytechnic of Namibia.

Monisha's termination went smoothly but large numbers of women
end up with a host of complications that include haemorrhaging when due to
a torn cervix or punctured uterus says a medical doctor at Katutura State
Hospital. (Doctors in the public health service are not permitted to speak
to the press, so he spoke to IPS anonymously.)

The doctor says one of the most common complications that they deal with
at the hospital include infections that develop when foetal parts are left
inside the uterus.

"A pelvic infection may lead to persistent fever over several days
and extended hospitalisation. It can also cause scarring of the pelvic
organs," he says.
The doctor says in severe cases some women have died because of back
street abortions after excessive bleeding.

Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Richard Kamwi said illegal
abortions remain a serious health problem in Namibia with abortion-related
deaths much more common among young women.

"It was also found that about one third of the deaths were due to
septic and illegally-induced abortion most likely unsafely performed
somewhere.

"Fifty-nine percent of the women dying of abortion related
complications were under the age of 25. This is consistent with other
reports that increasingly young people resort to unsafe abortion or even
commit suicide because of unwanted pregnancy," Kamwi says.

Sam Ntelamo, director of the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association says
baby dumping and infanticide is now an issue of concern in Namibia,
although without comprehensive data, it is impossible to estimate the true
extent of unsafe abortion as many cases are believed to go unreported.

"Even police statistics and anecdotal information suggest that the
problem is a significant one," Ntelamo said. "We quite often
hear of bodies of newborn babies retrieved at water works sites around
Windhoek and outside. These are shocking revelations"

Ntelamo blames the surge in the number of abortion cases to a great number
of youth failing to access reproductive health services.

In 1999, the Namibian government tried to legalise abortion, however it
claims it was forced to abandon the law after the public opposed it.
Government at the time said wide-ranging consultations with communities
that included churches; radio phone-ins and letters indicated 99 percent
of Namibians did not want abortion to be legalised.

Anti-abortion sentiment remains high. One Namibian interviewed by IPS
feels that if government legalises abortion, this will fuel immorality.

"Abortion must never be legalised in Namibia, women will just wily
nilly commit murder. Innocent babies will be killed, if our mothers had
been given that opportunity to choose whether we should have lived or died
then a lot of us would not be here. It's also so
un-African," says Ndawana Hausiku.

Under Namibian law a woman can only have an abortion in cases of incest,
rape or when the pregnancy is deemed a health risk to the life of the
mother.

The director of Sister Namibia, a non-governmental organisation that deals
with women's rights, Liz Frank told IPS that Namibia urgently
needed to reform its law on abortion.

"That draft bill which was declined by the public a few years ago
needs to be dusted off and retabled. There is need to embark on a campaign
to educate the public on the advantages of legalising abortion in the
country," she said.

"Currently the health ministry is spending huge amounts of money in
cleaning up botched abortions, while so many women are dying or having
life threatening injuries after undergoing backstreet abortions. Women
should have access to safe abortion."

Presently only four African countries permit abortion on demand during the
first trimester, South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Tunisia.