A consortium of civil society organisations has urged youths to take more active part in advocating for the enactment of the long-delayed Pregnancy Termination Bill to prevent high maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions.

Mateyu Sisya, who chairs a legal committee for the Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (COPUA), a member of the consortium, said the current legal framework is restrictive as it only provides for the termination of pregnancy whenever the life of a pregnant woman is at risk.

He said the proposed law reform seeks to prevent maternal deaths by allowing abortion in cases of rape, incest, foetal abnormalities and whenever necessary to prevent injury to the physical or mental health of a pregnant woman.

Sisya was speaking in Zomba on Saturday during a dialogue session with University of Malawi (UNIMA) students on the Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

He said the dialogue session was aimed at sensitizing the students on the contents of the bill and clearing misconceptions about the proposed law.

“We want them to know that it is not true that once this bill comes into law, it will allow pregnant women to abort anyhow.

“Young people should therefore be in the forefront in this advocacy so that we save our women from unsafe abortions and untimely deaths,” Sisya said.

Making a presentation on the extent of unsafe abortions, Zomba DHO Post-Abortion Care officer Lovemore Mpaso said a lot of women seek post abortion care in health facilities after failing to access safe abortion.

“Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that over 100,000 women in Malawi seek illegal abortions each year and 17 percent of them die from induced abortions.

“Over 33,000 women are treated annually for induced abortion complications in health facilities and these women take about 60 percent of gynaecology beds in facilities,” he said.

Mpaso said many women seek unsafe abortion methods due to the restrictive legal framework.

Malawi Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance is implementing a two-year-funded ‘Breaking Barriers’ project together with Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), Centre for Solutions Journalism (CSJ), Malawi Human Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC) and the Coalition for the Prevention of Unsafe Abortion (COPUA).

The project which is being funded by Amplify Change, aims at empowering adolescent girls and young women to access sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services to reduce unsafe abortion and unintended pregnancies.