It was of passing interest when the Google Zeitgeist 2012 Report ranked abortion as top on the list of the subjects Kenyans search for in the ‘How To’ category but a discussion during the breakfast show on Classic 105, following an expose by Rose Kwamboka, a writer with the Crazy Monday pullout in The Standard, revealed the startling facts of abortion in Kenya.

According to Kenya’s constitution, abortion is illegal except where in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is a need for emergency treatment or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any written law.

29 abortions for every 100 live births

However, if the figures released on abortion in Kenya are anything to go by, procuring abortion is just as easy as being treated for malaria.

There are apparently 29 abortions in Kenya for every 100 live births, according to the report in The Standard. The report indicates that there are about 310,000 abortions every year in Kenya with unsafe abortions contributing to 35 percent of all maternal deaths in Kenya, which translates to 2,450 deaths out of the 7,000 that occur annually during, or as a result of pregnancy or childbirth.

Complications associated with abortion

There are many dangers associated with abortions including heavy or persistent bleeding, infection or sepsis, damage to the cervix, scarring of the uterine lining, perforation of the uterus, and death in the most unfortunate cases. It seems, however, that many Kenyan women are oblivious to the dangers, if not ignorant on the subject.

Most abortion ‘customers’ are married

One of the doctors who called in during the Classic 105 radio show to give his opinion said he has so many return patients he started viewing them as customers not patients. The ‘doctor’, revealed that most of his ‘customers’ are married women who don’t want any more children.

If the doctor is right, then that is counterintuitive as one would surely expect young girls to top the list of those trying to obtain abortions and not married women. Perhaps it shows that a good section of married women in Kenya are not keen on family planning.

It also suggests that Kenyan women are afraid of pregnancies more than HIV and other related sexually transmitted diseases and possibly explains why HIV prevalence is said to be higher among married couples nowadays.

FOR AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW TRY AN ARTICLE IN TODAY’S STANDARD BY JENNY LUESBY ENTITLED, ‘RANT AND RAVE BUT HOW ABOUT LEGALISING ABORTION?’