LUSAKA, 22 September: Zambian doctors said the government should fully legalize abortion to curb the high maternal mortality rate caused by unsafe abortion in this Southern African nation, Times of Zambia reported on Saturday.
Obstetrics (fødselslæge) and gynaecology experts Christine Kaseba and Stephen Mupeta said that fully legalizing abortion could help the government to cut out “back street physicians” who conduct unsafe abortions every day.
Dr. Mupeta said studies show that countries badly affected by unsafe abortion are those with stringent laws against abortion, which forces women to turn to unauthorized doctors for termination of unwanted pregnancies, fostering a hotbed for unsafe abortions.
According to Times of Zambia, the rife unqualified abortion in Zambia accounts for 30 percent of maternal deaths which occurred at the University Teaching Hospital in 2006.
Womens rights activist Sarah Longwe said that government officials and other leaders including the Church should look at the issue of abortion critically, saying women should be left to choose when, how and with whom to have children.
She said authorities are to take into account the life and choice of the mother instead of the rights of the unborn child.
But Zambia Episcopal Conference spokesman Paul Samasumo reiterated (gentog) the argument Church has been insisted for centuries, saying the abortion is tantamount to the murder of unborn children.
He said the Church is consistently opposed to abortion and would not change its stance.
Kilder: Xinhua General News Service og The Push Journal
