Physicians and public health advocates are urging the Kenyan government for immediate legalization of abortion, an issue they say is crucial to ensuring complete reproductive health care services to women. Abortion, which is illegal in Kenya except in cases where the woman’s health is endangered, is one of the top five major causes of maternal mortality in Kenya. The current ban on abortion, according to Dr. Charles Okumu, the director of Nairobi Gynae Center, forces women to seek unsafe and frequently fatal abortions. But it is the poor in Kenya who bear the brunt of damage inflicted by the abortion ban; one female gynecologist who requested anonymity noted that abortions are available to women with money. Abortion on request, she commented, is only illegal for the poor.
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