This report on Citizen TV is primarily about the heated debate between the religious leaders and medical fraternity on the issue of abortion. The doctors claim that the church has no right to speak on behalf of the Kenyans, but the Church claims that abortion victimizes fetuses, that cannot defend themselves. The doctors say that the issue of when life begins is quite philosophical. The church says that life begins at conception, but the doctors say conception can only be proven after 5 weeks, through a pregnancy test. They also say, that to implement this law would be very impractical, because that would mean Kenyans would have to go and register their conception with the Registrar of Births and Deaths, to be able to prevent abortion from taking place. The medical fraternity says that the clause prevents medical practices such as treating atrophic pregnancies and test-tube babies. Women’s rights groups back the doctors on this. The medical fraternity claims that the church is standing on a moral pedestal, and refusing to reason on issues that Kenyans cannot simply wish away.
A report on NTV Kenya talks about the abortion clause of the draft constitution. It claims that abortion is one of the main reasons why Churches are urging Kenyans to vote “No”, but the Committee of Experts that wrote the constitution say that the Churches themselves have partly worded the abortion clause. One of the members on the CoE, Njoki Ndung’u, says that the issue of abortion has 3 ‘faces’. One is of the Church, the ‘moral face’. The second is of the doctors, the ‘medical face’, and the third face is the ‘health face’, of the affected women. She also said that the clause which refers to life beginning at conception is a belief shared only by some Christians, and not other religions in Kenya. She also made a point that the wording of the clause can be taken to illegalize contraceptives, because family-planning injections and morning-after pills prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, and conception has already taken place. It also discusses the miscommunication between Churches about the wordings sent to the Parliamentary Select Committee.
An article in the Nation newspaper also talks about abortion, and is strongly in support of the clergy, and essentially against the one discussed below in the Standard. This article claims that ‘The pastor and the politician are supposed to complement each other for the well-being of humanity.’ It further claims that all civil laws are legitimate if they comply with the moral law of nature. It states that it is the government’s job to regulate this ‘moral law’ as well as the civil law of the country. It provides references to the Bible, where it is written that the church keeps a ‘moral rein on the secular power of human authorities’. It mainly talks about how the Church has a right to impose its teachings upon the country, and passionately says how denying abortion is fundamental to justice, even in the cases of danger to the mother’s life. It vehemently calls for all Christians to object to this slight allowance of abortion in life-threatening situations, and remain rigid on the ‘no-abortion’ policy.
The Standard Newspaper talks about abortion in an article that claims that abortion should be legalised rather than be prohibited in Kenya. It claims that all Kenyans have the right to privacy, freedom, choice and conscience; therefore why do the churches seek to impose their ideals upon the country, where many may not believe in them? The article points out that the constitution is a document that allows the government to regulate how its citizens interact with each other, and not a document that dictates the moral choices of an individual. These should be their own. The article points the finger at the churches, saying that they are abusing their religious majority to force their ideals upon the rest of the country, and it quotes a certain liberal theorist “"through control of etiquette and morality, society — an unelected power — can do horrific things". This shows that since leaders of the churches are not elected, they do not represent the voice of the people, and can do things their way, without the people to respond to.
The constitutions of all the countries in light blue allow a woman to receive an abortion upon her request. Most of these countries are More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs) such as USA, Canada, Australia, Russia and members of the European Union. However, lots of liberal-minded developing countries such as Nepal, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and many other Central Asian countries have legalized it as well. The rest of the colors show the different levels of legality according to the various constitutions. As is shown above, Kenya falls under the category just before ‘Illegal with no exceptions’. This is the category that most of Africa is in at the moment, and legalizing it in the proposed constitution could help bring about a change in the attitude of most of Africa towards abortion.
The Proposed Constitution of Kenya is a big step forward in the development of Kenya and its progress in the fast-changing 21st century. There are many changes and modifications to the current Constitution of Kenya, touching on a variety of topics. One thing that the Proposed Constitution has not however, legalized is abortion. I believe that abortion should be legalized and women should have the right to choose whether they want to abort a child or not.
The Proposed Constitution of Kenya states in the Bill of Rights, Part 2, Article 26, 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.” In my opinion, the state should not interfere with the moral decisions of a woman, and it should be her right to her body and to decide whether she wants to keep the child, or abort it. The state does not even allow abortion in the case of rape or incest, where it is not the mother’s fault, and it should be her right to abort the child forced upon her.
Also, the Constitution proclaims that life begins at conception, but the fertilized eggs used in vitro-fertilization (test-tube babies), which are not implanted in the uterus are always thrown away. The constitution does not deem this as murder, but does abortion.
This is a problem because, if these abortions are not legalized, women will continue to have unsafe, illegal back-alley abortions, which result in serious harm to the woman. This kills thousands of women each year in Kenya. It is estimated that more than 300,000 Kenyan women go through illegal abortion every year (2003 survey); these numbers could have increased by a great amount due to the liberalism of Kenyan society at the moment. These illegal abortions are very dangerous to women, and 20% of all maternal deaths are due to this unsafe method of abortion.The number of women hospitalized due to illegal abortion-induced consequences in East Africa in the year 2000 exceeds 600,000. This number can be greatly reduced if safe and clinical abortion practices are legalized in Kenya.
