Abortion not the worst foe for Ugandan mothers
Dec 19, 2006
IN response to the article “Legalising Abortion is a Curse†(<i><a href="http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/537985">The New Vision, December 15</a></i>), I wish to bring a fuller analysis to the debate on abortion in Uganda. The article affirms that this debate is growing because health workers a
By Dr Chamberlain Froese
IN response to the article “Legalising Abortion is a Curse†(The New Vision, December 15), I wish to bring a fuller analysis to the debate on abortion in Uganda. The article affirms that this debate is growing because health workers and MPs are working hard to reduce Uganda’s maternal mortality rate.
The article also notes Uganda Joint Christian Council’s concerns that abortion will bring “God’s judgment†on Uganda.
Certainly, the council has the privilege to comment on such moral and biblical values.
However, legalising abortion or not, Uganda’s future is already grim. This is because 6,000 Ugandan women die annually from preventable pregnancy complications.
About 80% of these maternal deaths have nothing to do with abortion. They a result of lack of skilled attendants or proper medical supplies at delivery. In fact, more women in Uganda die of bleeding during childbirth, than unsafe abortion.
I am a physician who has left my Canadian home to partner with Ugandan colleagues who are committed to improving the situation for mothers. In Canada, where I gave birth to my two children, a woman never dreams of dying in labour. For every mother that dies in Canada, 100 die in Uganda.
I am also a Christian opposed to abortion on demand. I have often made my views, which though unpopular among many Canadian colleagues, known back home.
Still, I believe rather than scream in horror against legalising abortion, the Ugandan Church should show equal disdain toward the horror of mothers dying during something as God-ordained as bringing new life into the world.
Remember that legalised or not, there are already 300,000 abortions in Uganda annually. So it is a fallacy for the church to conclude that by confronting unsafe abortion, MPs and health workers will cause more abortions.
We need to address why Uganda has so many abortions. Otherwise, the gains we are making will be lost in an endless and useless debate.
We all agree that all mothers should survive childbirth, that all mothers have skilled attendants, proper blood products and equipment at all health centres, in urban or rural areas.
The Church can help with this by teaching its members to value mothers by understanding the inherent value that God gives women. Why, for example, do physicians need to wait for a man to sign for his partner’s caesarean section? Shouldn’t the women, by law, have the right to sign for themselves? Men also need to ensure that they plan for a child’s delivery.
The Church can also help to counter false cultural teachings. Some Ugandan women die because they are kept from life-saving caesarean sections.
Why? Because of the myth that it is marital unfaithfulness that drives a woman to go for caesarean section.
Finally, the church can help by teaching that safe and Godly family planning will reduce the number of life-threatening deliveries that too many Ugandan women experience. Abortion should not be used as a last-ditch method of family planning.
Maternal mortality is now at crossroads in Uganda. That it is being debated at a national level is a sign of this. For far too long, Uganda’s dying mothers have been neglected and ignored.
MPs like Sylvia Ssinabulya, from Mityana, who is currently enrolled in the Save the Mothers programme at the Uganda Christian University Mukono are changing that. It was Ssinabulya who recently helped introduce the Bill calling on the Government to establish a new national maternal programme, one that will train a better workforce and give better resources.
Let us not let abortion cloud the real issues. No woman wants to have an abortion. The physical and emotional consequences are too overwhelming, regardless of the circumstances. Instead, let us work at what everyone can agree on: mothers should not die while bringing new life into the world.
The writer is an obstetrician/ gynaecologist, founder and executive director of Save the Mothers International
www.savethemothers.org
IN response to the article “Legalising Abortion is a Curse†(The New Vision, December 15), I wish to bring a fuller analysis to the debate on abortion in Uganda. The article affirms that this debate is growing because health workers and MPs are working hard to reduce Uganda’s maternal mortality rate.
The article also notes Uganda Joint Christian Council’s concerns that abortion will bring “God’s judgment†on Uganda.
Certainly, the council has the privilege to comment on such moral and biblical values.
However, legalising abortion or not, Uganda’s future is already grim. This is because 6,000 Ugandan women die annually from preventable pregnancy complications.
About 80% of these maternal deaths have nothing to do with abortion. They a result of lack of skilled attendants or proper medical supplies at delivery. In fact, more women in Uganda die of bleeding during childbirth, than unsafe abortion.
I am a physician who has left my Canadian home to partner with Ugandan colleagues who are committed to improving the situation for mothers. In Canada, where I gave birth to my two children, a woman never dreams of dying in labour. For every mother that dies in Canada, 100 die in Uganda.
I am also a Christian opposed to abortion on demand. I have often made my views, which though unpopular among many Canadian colleagues, known back home.
Still, I believe rather than scream in horror against legalising abortion, the Ugandan Church should show equal disdain toward the horror of mothers dying during something as God-ordained as bringing new life into the world.
Remember that legalised or not, there are already 300,000 abortions in Uganda annually. So it is a fallacy for the church to conclude that by confronting unsafe abortion, MPs and health workers will cause more abortions.
We need to address why Uganda has so many abortions. Otherwise, the gains we are making will be lost in an endless and useless debate.
We all agree that all mothers should survive childbirth, that all mothers have skilled attendants, proper blood products and equipment at all health centres, in urban or rural areas.
The Church can help with this by teaching its members to value mothers by understanding the inherent value that God gives women. Why, for example, do physicians need to wait for a man to sign for his partner’s caesarean section? Shouldn’t the women, by law, have the right to sign for themselves? Men also need to ensure that they plan for a child’s delivery.
The Church can also help to counter false cultural teachings. Some Ugandan women die because they are kept from life-saving caesarean sections.
Why? Because of the myth that it is marital unfaithfulness that drives a woman to go for caesarean section.
Finally, the church can help by teaching that safe and Godly family planning will reduce the number of life-threatening deliveries that too many Ugandan women experience. Abortion should not be used as a last-ditch method of family planning.
Maternal mortality is now at crossroads in Uganda. That it is being debated at a national level is a sign of this. For far too long, Uganda’s dying mothers have been neglected and ignored.
MPs like Sylvia Ssinabulya, from Mityana, who is currently enrolled in the Save the Mothers programme at the Uganda Christian University Mukono are changing that. It was Ssinabulya who recently helped introduce the Bill calling on the Government to establish a new national maternal programme, one that will train a better workforce and give better resources.
Let us not let abortion cloud the real issues. No woman wants to have an abortion. The physical and emotional consequences are too overwhelming, regardless of the circumstances. Instead, let us work at what everyone can agree on: mothers should not die while bringing new life into the world.
The writer is an obstetrician/ gynaecologist, founder and executive director of Save the Mothers International
www.savethemothers.org