According to the World Health Organization, every 8 minutes a woman in a developing nation will die of complications arising from an unsafe abortion. (WHO) That means approximately 6 women die every hour because of they do not have access to safe family planning. That is why the topic I will be discussing for my Final Project is Reproductive Health care Access in Kenya. I have researched this topic multiple times before, and it is something I am extremely passionate about. While we all know Kenya and many other developing countries are stilling battling a lasting stigma against seeking reproductive health care, we need to figure out a way to combine a way to respect Kenyan culture and the public health needs. We have to combine culture and biomedicine as young women face critical health problems in Kenya due to the lack of Reproductive health access and education.
According to a News Release by the Guttmacher Institute, almost two-thirds of the estimated 345,000 pregnancies among adolescent women in Kenya are unintended. Data has indicated that many adolescent women who give birth each year in Kenya do not receive the essential components of maternal and newborn health care that is recommended. About half of these adolescents have fewer than four antenatal care visits and one-third do not give birth in a health facility. While few choose not to seek out reproductive health care whether that is because of the stigma against younger women seeking reproductive health services; or it is because they simply choose not to. But, many women simply do not have choice. Even though maternal care in Kenya is given for free, there is still barriers for women to be able to access that care. For example, many women in rural areas have no transportation to the city. And while Kenya offers free maternal care, they do not offer family planning services.
And since many adolescents pregnancies in Kenya are unintended, then where is there family planning services? Family planning and education could help prevent unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. But in Kenya, only 48 percent of women know where to access contraceptives and fewer than half of those find it easily accessible. ( Way ) Studies indicate that about one third of maternal mortality in Kenya is due to unsafe abortion. Kenya has strict abortion laws: according to their consitiution, “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.” Therefore, women do not have access to safe abortion procedures.
There is also cultural expectations of women when they become a sexually active age. In an article by VOA News, they discuss what female genital multilation means in Kenyan cultures. Girls are under societal pressure to undergo FGM, from the fear of being ostracized or killed to the prestige associated with entering womanhood. It can be seen as a rite of passage in many Kenyan communities. It acts also as a trigger for young girls to become sexually active and married off as they were perceived as women, which often ends with child pregnancy.
We need to address these issues Kenyan communities are facing and work to fix them from a public health and cultural perspective.
“In Kenya, Reproductive Health Services Fall Short of Adolescents’ Needs.” Guttmacher Institute, February 27, 2019. https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2019/kenya-reproductive-health-services-fall-short-adolescents-needs.
Jayaweera, Ruvani T., Felistah Mbithe Ngui, Kelli Stidham Hall, and Caitlin Gerdts. “Women’s Experiences with Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion in Kenya: A Qualitative Study.” Plos One13, no. 1 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191412.
“The Tragic Impacts of Unsafe Abortion Care in Kenya Are All Too Real.” Center for Reproductive Rights, reproductiverights.org/story/wanjikus-story.
Way, Ann A., Anne R. Cross, and Sushil Kumar. “Family Planning in Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe.” International Family Planning Perspectives 13, no. 1 (1987): 7-11. doi:10.2307/2948101.
“Kenya’s Abortion Provisions.” Center for Reproductive Rights. Accessed July 27, 2019. https://reproductiverights.org/world-abortion-laws/kenyas-abortion-provisions.