Right To Say No
REPRODUCTIVE health is being taken as a
matter of immediate priority, especially for the developing nations and rightly so. It is
an issue that not only involves maternal and child health, the threat of sexually
transmitted diseases and HIV, but also the reproductive rights of women. What must be
remembered is that reproductive rights are essentially a part of women’s human
rights, not different from other human rights like Right to life, Right to liberty and
security, Right to privacy and the Right to equality. The right to say no to forced
motherhood is also part and parcel of women’s human rights. Advocates of the Right to
safe abortion say that no woman’s life should be put at risk by reason of pregnancy,
nor her other rights violated if she has become pregnant against her wish. In Nepal too,
voices are being raised over the pregnancies that result due to rape or incest—that
women should not be barred from terminating such pregnancies. Almost fifty per cent of the
maternal mortality cases are attributed to unsafe abortion in Nepal where abortion is
illegal. The ultimate victims are women alone. There are hundreds of cases of women
languishing in prison who are victims of rape, incest and at times widows. Instead of
giving them justice, we have put them behind bars as they are found guilty of prima facie
evidence of abortion. No one seems to be bothered what and who made them undergo abortion
at the first place, what were the compelling circumstances? And the social organisations
that speak for women’s rights have been active demanding safe abortion. The Eleventh
Amendment of the National Code in the Parliament under consideration liberalises the
Draconian law a little, making abortion conditional.
The International Planned Parenthood
Federation is one such international non-government organisation, which started fifty
years ago in Bombay and now is an umbrella organisation that has six regional offices the
world over. Now IPPF has decided to transfer its South Asia Regional office to Nepal from
London. With the IPPF office here in Nepal, added boost to advocacy of safe abortion can
be expected.
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