John Nyamu, a Kenyan obstetrician and gynecologist, will stand trial next week after being charged with performing 15 abortions. Dr. Steven Ochiel, the head of Kenya’s Medical Association, is urging doctors to protest the murder trial, stating that “the case against Dr. Nyamu is not against him. It is against the medical profession,” reports The East African Standard.
Dr. Nyamu ran two reproductive health clinics, reports The Guardian, in the capital of Kenya. Dr. Nyamu and his two nurses were charged with murder after 15 fetuses were near the Ngong River. The punishment for murder in Kenya is the death penalty, reports The Guardian.
Abortion is illegal in Kenya, except in cases where a doctor finds the continuation of a pregnancy is a threat to life of the mother. According to All Africa, complications from unsafe abortion accounts for 60 percent of gynecological ward emergency admissions in Nairobi, Kenya alone.
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