Ipas > Voices from Ethiopia

Voices from Ethiopia

July 20, 2006

Unsafe abortion remains a major cause of maternal deaths in Ethiopia.

Photo courtesy of Crispin Hughes, Panos Pictures.

Though abortion is one of the most common procedures experienced by the world’s women, rarely do we hear women who have actually undergone abortions tell their stories. In a global environment where abortion is increasingly contested, women’s views on abortions are drowned out by the political and religious debates surrounding reproductive rights.

From time to time, Ipas shares the stories of women and girls who felt they had no other option than to end an unwanted pregnancy by unsafe abortion. This periodic series is called “No Longer Silent.”

Today, “No Longer Silent” journeys to Ethiopia, a country where, until recently, legal abortion was only available to women whose lives were threatened by a pregnancy. But in 2004, the Ethiopian Parliament revised its penal code and expanded the indications for legal abortion: when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest; when the woman’s or fetus’ lives are in jeopardy; when the fetus has severe abnormalities; when the woman has physical or mental disabilities; and when a minor is physically or psychologically unprepared to raise a child.

The stories of Ethiopian women who have experienced a clandestine abortion sound eerily like those of U.S. women who went underground for abortions in the days before Roe v. Wade. But while deaths and injuries from unsafe abortion practically vanished in the United States after the 1973 decision, Ethiopian women still risk their lives to end pregnancies. In such a large and predominantly rural country, a majority of women will never have contact with any medical provider, and therefore, won’t have access to contraceptives, much less to safe abortion services. Beyond barriers of distance, the social stigma around abortion remains in place for the time being; women are at risk for sexual assault; and finally, women may not be aware that safe abortion care is available.

Ipas interviewed women in Ethiopia about their experiences to help demonstrate the impact of unsafe abortion on their lives. The women quoted below had abortions between 1997 and 2001, and they prove that abortion is not just an issue that affects uneducated, rural women. Most women quoted here were educated and were in their 20s when they had the then-illegal procedure; some were married and others divorced.

One woman spoke of the fear that the abortion would ultimately kill her. But, imagining the disdain of her family, she went ahead with an unsafe termination.

“I was somewhat scared, worrying about the possibility of death. On the other hand, I was also conscious of the negative reaction of my family if I carried the pregnancy to term. Despite the risks attached to the abortion procedure, I had only one option.”

Another woman chose abortion because she didn’t want to see the reaction of her mother, in particular.

“Most importantly, I was so mad whenever I contemplated the possible disappointment of my mother. She has been disciplining me to avoid this incident.”

Facing family opposition and a restrictive abortion law, women often literally walked into the clutches of unqualified providers.

“In front of the hospital, there are a number of brokers directing pregnant women to traditional means of abortion with a cheap service fee. When women resort to traditional ways of abortion for the sake of saving money, their lives could be at risk. To avoid criminal liability, the persons who terminate pregnancies may tend to throw away the remains of women who died from the abortion.”

And the chances of dying from an abortion were very real — and they continue to be, for Ethiopian women and girls who don’t have access to safe, high-quality services.

One interviewee recalled: “He inserted something into my womb. Then he advised me to stand up, as the procedure is over. But I could not leave the bed immediately following the procedure; I was almost unconscious for some hours, just lying on the bed. … I think the man inserted some iron object in my womb to ‘sweep out’ the pregnancy.”

Other illicit abortion providers used poisons or toxic chemicals to do the job.

According to another woman, “he started to gather containers filled with various solutions. In additional to the initial does, he also gave me some in a container to take with me to my home. If you don’t have a container, he charges you 25 cents for the container and gives you the solution with instructions. … He instructed me to drink the liquid for three days on an empty stomach. He also advised me not to be scared by the abdominal cramps that would follow the three-day dose.”

These women survived. But health facility studies have shown that unsafe abortion contributes to nearly 40 percent of all maternal deaths, compared to only 13 percent worldwide. Ipas has been working to support the implementation of the new code and to ensure that health-care providers in government health facilities (where most women get their health care) will be trained to provide safe abortion care. Legal reform and improved service delivery are two concrete steps toward Ipas’s goal of saving women’s lives.

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