Ipas > Kenyan youth wrestle with reality, rhetoric of abortion

Kenyan youth wrestle with reality, rhetoric of abortion

November 27, 2006

This comic image, depicting the dilemma of pregnant teenager Rukia and her boyfriend Jack, was used to gauge Kenyan youth's opinions about abortion.

Illustrations by Zack Warkenton.

Whatever Kenyan youth believe about abortion, they’re bombarded with often biased messages about its causes and consequences. A new study suggests that wider social messages can color beliefs and that adolescents are prone to mimic judgmental anti-abortion scripts. But young people may tone down their rhetoric and consider abortion a valid option when faced with real-life cases of unintended pregnancy.

These were some of the conclusions of Ipas researchers Ellen M.H. Mitchell, PhD, and Shirley Owino, MPH, and colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States and PATH Kenya in a paper titled “Social scripts and stark realities: Kenyan adolescents’ abortion discourse.” It appears in the November-December issue of the journal Culture, Health & Sexuality.

For the paper, the researchers analyzed qualitative data they had collected in 2002-2003 as part of the TeenWeb Nairobi survey, an innovative Internet-based study. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 614 Kenyan students from three public secondary schools in Nairobi; most participants were 16-18 years of age.

The students were presented with a comic book story about Rukia and Jack, a fictional teen couple facing an unintended pregnancy. After reading the vignette, the respondents were asked how they’d advise Rukia and Jack, and how they’d react in a similar situation. They were also asked whether they knew a peer who’d ever had an unintended pregnancy and, if so, to describe the outcome in that real-life case.

When talking about the fictional characters’ dilemma, the youth often fell back on scripts found in the media and schoolbooks. In this largely Christian East African nation, it’s not unusual for widely used and government-approved textbooks to include incorrect and sensationalist rhetoric about abortion, although it is one of the safest of all medical procedures when performed properly by a skilled provider. A national ethics exam book, for example, predicts terrible consequences for those who terminate a pregnancy, including “hallucinations, dementia and ultimate madness.”

In the study, the teens frequently responded in terms that were strikingly similar to the discussion of abortion in their schoolbooks and other materials available to most Kenyan youth.

Many of the TeenWeb respondents said they wouldn’t suggest abortion for Rukia and Jack, saying, for example, that abortion is “murder” and that having an abortion could lead to “stress, loss of friends, body complications — e.g., barrenness — and loss of dignity.” But while they parroted public speak about abortion, more than 70 percent of girls in the study reported knowing a peer who’d had an unintended pregnancy. And although numerous students cited potential long-term “psychological effects” as a reason not to have an abortion, less than 1 percent of the students who described actual cases of peers’ abortions mentioned any mental distress after the procedure.

Yet if abortion is stigmatized, parenthood — seemingly the preferred and more socially acceptable response to unintended pregnancy for this group — carries grave consequences.

Some youth viewed teen parenthood as a form of punishment for the “offending” couple. A 17-year-old student recommended carrying the pregnancy to term as “a sign of remembrance of the mistake” of premarital sex.

But as a matter of personal choice, some teens seemed more comfortable contemplating abortion for themselves than for the fictional characters, despite the serious health risks associated with unsafe abortion; Kenyan law permits abortion only to save the woman’s or girl’s life or to preserve her health, and many women seek unsafe procedures performed by unskilled providers. About 12 percent of the youth surveyed said that they would choose abortion if faced with an unintended pregnancy, compared with just 2 percent who said they’d advise Rukia and Jack to do so.

Of those who’d terminate a pregnancy, many cited practical reasons: avoiding stigma, family discord, and, in the case of girls, loss of education or reputation due to pregnancy. Although pregnant girls cannot legally be barred from secondary school, the responses suggest that teenage mothers face strong pressure from parents and educators to drop out of school.

At least one in 10 respondents indicated that they personally would take no action if faced with an unintended pregnancy. Instead, they would “pray for a miracle,” “leave it all to God,” “keep it a secret until confronted” or “cry, cry ... [and ] then go to sleep.”

Faced with misleading information about abortion and reproductive health from schools and other sources, Kenyan youth may find themselves facing an unintended pregnancy and with no practical, accurate information about their options.

Given the high rates of unintended pregnancy and HIV among Kenyan youth today, the authors concluded that “the need for factual information, dispassionate dialogue and improved contraceptive access is considerable.”

At least one leading newspaper agreed that Kenyans need to reframe dialogue about adolescent sexual behavior and abortion. The Daily Nation responded to the TeenWeb Nairobi findings in 2004 by saying that “ … we have to rethink … ways of conducting the contentious family life education in schools because we cannot afford to close our eyes and ears while our children are wandering in the wilderness. We must move away from the simplistic solutions to these serious moral problems. Fulminating, moralizing and ‘buck-passing’ will not help us. What is critical is for the family unit, the school and the church to change their ways of handling youth problems.”

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258