Ugandan Goverment Rejects Proposal On Legal Abortion
Ethics and Integrity Minister, James Nsaba Buturo has said the government will not succumb to pressure from several quarters to legalise the ‘evil of abortion’.
Addressing journalists at the Media Centre in Kampala on Friday, Dr Buturo said the latest proposal by medical doctors from Gulu District to legalise abortion was misguided and contravenes the laws of Uganda.
“As government we cannot push for such a legalisation [allowing abortion],” Mr Buturo said. “It is against our cherished cultural norms and the doctrines of God.”
Early this month, local media reports indicated that doctors in Gulu had asked Parliament to pass a law permitting induced abortion among school girls in the war-ravaged north.This was reportedly in effort to reduce the alarming heights of deaths among expectant mothers.
The medics argued that many young girls that had been victims of rape and defilement by the LRA rebels had died due to a number of pregnancy -related complications.
Dr Buturo said if abortion was legalised to cater for only LRA rape victims , many young women in other parts of the country would flock the north for abortion since it would be legal there.
“There are practical problems which are associated with such a proposal,”Dr Buturo said. “Supportive legislation must provide for all women in Uganda otherwise it fails the test of a good legislation.”
Dr Charles Engenye, a gynaecologist at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, reasoned that fewer girls die of abortion in countries where abortion is legal compared to countries like Uganda where the practice is prohibited.
Many adolescents have continued to die while carrying out abortion for fear of being punished by their parents, guardians or the law.
The constitution of Uganda and Penal Code Act guarantee the right to live. And the law,however, provides for exceptions for this violation such as in situations when a pregnancy endangers the life of the mother and in some cases where rape has been proved.
The doctors believe that if abortion is legalised, it would reduce on maternal mortality rate by 15 per cent. According to Dr Engenye, the Health Ministry’s figures indicate 435 out of 100,000 mothers die while giving birth yet in the north it is 700 out of 100,000, this means the country loses about 20 women to child- related complications on a daily basis.
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