Friday, April 19, 2024

Zambian law provides for safe abortion-Health Minister

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Minister of Health Joseph Kasonde
Minister of Health Joseph Kasonde

Government says it does not want to see any woman die as a result of unsafe abortion, when the law provides for safe abortion services.

Health minister Joseph Kasonde says government has always said that it does not want abortion to be done if possible, but if done, should be by registered practitioners.

Dr. Kasonde says women should not be dying at the hands of practitioners that have no ability to carry out the service properly when health centres provide for safe services.

Speaking to QFM News, Dr. Kasonde states that in 1972, parliament passed an act allowing women to access safe abortion, under which safe abortion was defined.

The republican constitution allows for the termination of pregnancies, provided such is done within the laid down conditions of the law.

According to the termination of pregnancy Act of 1972, an abortion in Zambia can be conducted where the pregnancy constitutes a risk to the life of the pregnant woman.

And the ministry of health’s standards and guidelines for reducing unsafe abortion, morbidity and mortality in Zambia stipulates that termination of pregnancies is legal, provided it is conducted by trained and skilled medical providers within the confines of the law.

QFM

36 COMMENTS

  1. I hope you only termination a pregnancy when it constitutes a risk to the life of the pregnant woman but women of nowadays abortion has become a hobby i just hope none of them will abort a future president

  2. Most PF ministers where born before 1972, and they are lucky that abortion was illegal. Now they want to promote it on their unborn friends, that is pure selfishness.

  3. This i where i hate the women movement… Safe killing or whatever u may call it please stop it.. Especially you Youths .i.e Teenagers and 20 somethings.. God will punish you..
    And the one talking about PF Ministers, you are a bastard . Wish LT could retrieve your Email and trace your where about .you need to be caged.

  4. I hope it only applies to cases were pregancy threatens the life of the mother. otherwise it will be like providing a safer killing method to a terrorist so that he does not get blown up too when blowing up others.

  5. Gents…. abortion does not just mean termination of unwanted pregnancy especially if you are looking from Biblical point of view….. if an 8 year old gal falls pregnant and her body cant not contain, abortion is only way out to save her life, many cases if life of the mother is under threat, they abort….if thieves rape whichever angle one looks at are equally times women abort. Many Zambian woman died out of pregnancy related problems because society at that time abortion was not allowed…so stop looking at it in the wrong way

    • It is important to note that, what we need to deal with are the illegal abortions which are rampant; am sure the law is silent on that from the look of things. Further, I don’t want abortion to be encourage at all, unless there is a real medical complication not just that someone does not want to have a baby.

      What needs to be done, is to support these women, after delivery the children can be given for adoption.

  6. Say no to abortion even if it will save the mother. Two wrongs never make it right
    Ba CNP Dr Katema is the Minister of Community Development, Mother and Child Health

  7. Some pregnances are so unwanted that one remains with no option but to terminate it. An abortion conducted safely surely will save the woman.. Unsafe abortion may terminate or complicate the life of both mother and foetus. Better to go it SAFE!

  8. the minister is lying. abortion is illegal in zambia except for medical reason. if  the law only provided for that he cannot say the law allows it. he was just playing with words. if the law allows it should have given a cut off point beyond which about can be carried out like it is in standard laws elsewhere.

  9. This is just fantastic news for modern woman. I saw way too many girls at UNZA die from un-safe abortions – or at times aborted foetuses in dustbins half eaten by cats. These girls were not aware that one can go to UTH and get a safe abortion.

    ba Minister – please can you publicise this in our higher education institutions – every zambian woman should know about this

    • the minister is not talking about what you are say. you cannot go to the hospital in zambia and say i want any abortion because am not ready for the pregnancy.

  10. Dont be ignorant you people. who says abortion is only done if you dont want the baby. there are complications that can cause that. i wish men could get pregnant so they can understand what it is to lose a child. of course women who do it just to not kids should be punished.
    Lets think liberal and modest.

  11. ladies and gentlemen abortion is very much legal in Zambia and available in the district hospitals. Nurses and doctors and cleaners have been trained and are well paid when they carry out one. Good money anso. The training is called IPAS and it is well underway….oh and it is classified long-term contraception after counseling.

  12. Dear my Un-born child.
    I am sorry that I never saw you through to live your life here on earth. I do not know what kind of life you would have led, but I am sorry that you will never know. It was my selfishness that killed you. I wanted to continue my life without public shame, as you know I wasn’t married to your other parent. I had to continue with my career as well and you just happened at the wrong time. I will meet you someday, but I feel nothing but shame. Please forgive me,
    Yours truly,
    Aborting parent

    • Dear Aborting Mother,

      I am sorry that I never knew you but understand that you had a hard decision to make and didn’t want to bring me into a world in which you could not provide for me or where I would have faced abuse. I thank for not dropping me down a latrine as other young mothers have done. Please take time to finish school and have your own life so that my future brothers and sisters may bring you much joy when the time is right.

      Yours truly,
      Aborted fetus

  13. I think advising safe abortion is just promoting young school girls getting pregnant,do you even look at how many young girls get pregnant nowadays?its not a good idea at all.

  14. Who made abortion legal so that anyone who wants can have abortion, you are spreading AIDS imwe. This act is for saving life, not for fun. stop the genocide

  15. I believe that abortion is commonly done in schools by a girl child so as to eliminate unplanned pregnancy right? moreover, the govt introduced re-entry policy,but why should it again allow such a thing and yet Zambia is said to be a christian nation,is it that you the supporters are already born,i wish it was allowed before all of us were not born. some of our intellectual & hard working people in our societies survived from that.Not only that but who are we to legalize abortion when our might father forbids.i suggest , it is better for the govt to provide enough contraceptive to whoever is in need of them like what they do with condoms.

    • And provision of contraceptive is a lesser evil… Its easy to make a comment over something you have never and never will experience but folks life is not always in black and white

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