Working on abortion rights advocacy in Malawi is not easy. When I first set up CSJ News around ten years ago we struggled to find people willing to act as trustees, because they did not want to be associated with the topic of abortion. Personally, the backlash I experienced as an individual was so unbearable I needed to change churches, because I had dared to question its teachings on issues like abortion and LGBTQI rights. At first, some of our content was required to be vetted by the Malawi Censorship Board. They were nervous about what we might be saying about abortion, but they saw all our material was accurate and professionally packaged and eventually the vetting eased off.
Everybody thought that abortion is completely illegal in Malawi.
A big part of our work is educating people about the law and their rights. Even health workers were telling us that abortion is illegal. In fact, it is legal where there is a threat to the woman who is pregnant. There are ‘post-abortion care guidelines’ which allow for care in health centres.
Abortion is a class issue in Malawi. The rich access the services in private clinics but the poor cannot access the services, they depend on public health facilities. If a poor girl in the village needs an abortion she may attempt to induce the abortion on her own by using detergents, which are popular among the rural people. If not this, she may use herbalists or traditional birth attendants to assist her. The problem is that some of the substances used are poisonous, others even use crude objects. Most of them end up injuring themselves and suffering complications, maybe even bleeding to death because they fear if they go to the hospital they may be jailed.
The problem of unsafe abortion was so severe that the government was forced to introduce a post-abortion care policy across all district hospitals.
The policy says that women seeking post-abortion care shouldn’t be arrested, or questioned, but just be offered the service. But the challenge is that, due to fear of backlash from the anti-choice movement, the government does not publicise that service. We see the availability of post-abortion care as an opportunity. We engage health workers to let them know they can help women.
We also expect the revised national Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) policy to be published soon. The government consulted several partners including CSJ for input. We are proud to say that it now includes reference to the need for safe abortion and post-abortion care.
Through our media advocacy we have broken the silence on abortion.
We publicise the issue without fear – to us, that’s the right way of addressing stigma. We do the same thing with LGBTQI rights.
Malawi is not a country where ten years ago you would have had a TV or radio show discussing abortion – it was a taboo, no one would have accepted this. But now it’s happening, we have broken the barriers and the silence is shattered. Chiefs, human rights lawyers, and even young people are freely speaking on the need for abortion law reform.
Ten years ago, if a traditional leader discovered a girl in their community had induced abortion they would refer that case to the police. The story is now different. Women and girls who have had unsafe abortions are referred to health facilities for post-abortion care. Similarly, in the past a health worker would have informed the police about an unsafe abortion, now the health workers simply offer post-abortion care. That to me is a huge achievement in a setting where abortion is so highly restricted.
SAAF’s support to CSJ has boosted not just us but the wider movement in Malawi.
We have improved our profile, our visibility and our impact. We are recognised for our advocacy work on abortion, and contacted by international journalists working on the topic.
Our ideal situation is that in the future every girl and every woman who decides to have an abortion should have access both in private and public clinics. In the future, I would love my beautiful daughter to be able to access that service without any barriers. We want a Malawi in which every citizen enjoys human rights without challenges.
Brian Ligomeka – Executive Director of CSJ News, a SAAF grantee partner in Malawi.