Let us teach sex education in order to curb teenage abortion

You have just been awakened from your afternoon reverie by incessant ringing of the phone. You really want to ignore this call but your instincts dictate otherwise. There are pending bills that need to be settled and you have defaulted paying your rent. Your landlord is getting in to your nerves reminding you how many tenants are short of houses so he won’t mind if you vacate.

Melancholy is momentarily replaced the moment you pick the call. It is Irene, a chick you bumped into at your cousin’s graduation party. Everyone was in a festive mood, food and drinks flowed freely and since she mesmerized you, you hit on her the moment effects of free alcohol started taking toll on you.

Similarly, she was inebriated so one thing led to another and the next morning you realized she slept over at your digs. You can remember you woke up shame written all over your face like Adam after eating the forbidden apple. You had devoured the forbidden fruit unsheathed.

However, by the end of the conversation, you are filled with despondency, dread and consternation after the news sink in that you are going to be a father. You feel like you have been struck by lightning twice.

The only silver lining in the cumulus cloud, is her suggestion that she does not intend to keep it. You breathe a sigh of relief and promptly request a Kshs.5000 MShwari loan to facilitate the procedure.

Irene proceeds to a backstreet clinic in Eastlands where she is referred by her former schoolmate who is now a nurse in a government hospital. The shocking thing is that this is her third visit.

Ironically, according to her parents she is an epitome of morality. She never misses church, she is even the choirmaster, mentors some high school girls and is a regular attendant of church fellowships and crusades. But she is not alone.

The statistics of abortion in Kenya are worrying particularly among teenagers. In a survey carried out in 2012 by Ziraba AK, Izugbara C, Levandowski BA, Gebreselassie H, Mutua M, Mohamed SF, et al. entitled Unsafe abortion in Kenya: a cross-sectional study of abortion complication severity and associated factors, there were approximately 464,000 abortions procured during that year. This translated to a ratio of 30 per 100 live births.

The World Health Organization estimates that there occurs a total of 22 million unsafe abortions world wide of which 98% of them occur in developing countries.

Paradoxically, in Kenya abortion is criminalized under Section 159 of the Penal Code which states that, “. Any woman who, being with child, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever, or permits any such thing or means to be administered or used to her, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.”

The constitution also clearly stipulates under Article 21 clause (4), “Abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.”

Statistics aside, we all know of someone close who has committed an abortion. We have also acquiesced in a way by offering money to our one night stands, our exes, girlfriends and wives for them to procure abortion.

Dangers of unsafe abortions to women are many as documented in various medical journals like Medscape and include; complications of anesthesia, post abortion triad (i.e., pain, bleeding, low-grade fever), hematometra (collection or retention of blood in the uterus), retained products of conception, uterine perforation, bowel and bladder injury, failed abortion, septic abortion, cervical shock, cervical laceration, disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).

Treating 120,000 cases of post-abortion complications among 15-19 year olds is a disaster. We have abandoned our young daughters and sisters.

We have seen women who suffer recurring miscarriages as a result of multiple abortions they procured in their youth. The stigma these women are forced to live with is unbearable in our patriarchal society where motherhood is deemed to be the epitome of womanhood.

We need to introduce sex education in our schools, churches and every forums where the youth meet. We cannot continue burying our heads in the sand.

We all know devoid of statistics that virginity is lost as early as in primary school and mostly in secondary school. The little pretty girls and handsome boys we see donning well-pressed school uniforms are not as innocent as they look. A good number of them has experimented sexual intercourse.

The plethora of foreign programmes and American movies which glorify sex, drugs and violence have exacerbated the problem.

The proliferation of brothels and strip clubs in our towns is a clear indication of how we have failed our young girls.

Information is the most powerful tool we can give these young citizens. Let us teach them abortion is a crime and not a human right. Let us teach them the dangers of abortion and premarital sex.

Let us crackdown on unscrupulous and greedy death merchants in the form of medical practitioners who are minting millions at the expense our daughters’ health.

Let us also consider declaring abortion a national disaster. Otherwise history will judge us harshly.