Oh, Atalanta...just admit it, you're obsessed over me! You follow me around Curezone like a puppydog so you can get your daily bisquit of truth :) S

Logger, thank goodness for some world view here. This is not a US problem, this is a world wide issue.

Admittedly, Kenya is a third world country. But if we were to put Kenya in a test tube, this is the perfect scenario of what could happen should abortion be outlawed. The state of abortion, and all female health services, is very grim over there.

Here is an excerpt and a link to an exceptionally good article.


"Criminalisation of abortion only increases unsafe abortions and maternal morbidity and mortality," he says. "It is only through collaboration and cooperation that laws discriminating against women in reproductive and sexual health can be removed from our midst".

Although abortion is discreetly carried out in licenced clinics, the procedure often takes too long because it is illegal, and too expensive for many patients who often fall in the lower income bracket.

An abortion performed in a licenced clinic can cost as much as 8,000 shillings, way too above for many patients like teenage school girls with no income.

One US dollar is equal to 74 shillings.

As a result, Ochiel says, many women and girls have resorted to crude methods of pregnancy termination, such as drugs, herbs, often leading to untold suffering.

Some health "experts" have set up "backstreet" abortion clinics in their houses where, often with inadequate knowledge of the anatomy of a female reproductive tract, they use tools like metal, rubber and catheters to procure abortions.

Many of the "backstreet" patients have ended up in hospital with complications, either from excessive bleeding or severe bacterial infection in the reproductive tract, the commonest causes of abortion deaths.

Others who have failed to procure abortions try to hide their pregnancies until birth, after which they dump their infants in pit latrines or garbage dumps.

Hardly a day passes in Kenya without the media reporting a case of an abandoned infant, a factor which has contributed in the rising number of street children.

The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) says more than 500,000 children earn their living in Kenyan streets. Maternal mortality in Kenya is also too high, at 200 for ever 100,000 live births majority of mothers lacking access to basic health services.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/36/027.html