For Safe Abortion
THE news that only a section of the population sample
surveyed in ten different cities of the country know about the passage of the abortion
bill and its conversion into full-fledged law after receiving the Royal Assent two months
ago is indeed something to brood over. The outcome of the survey conducted by the Centre
for Research Environment, Health and Population Activities (CREHPA) clearly reveals the
ignorance of the Nepalese towards their rights and privileges. The message we get from
this survey is surely a discouraging one. The media has played its part to disseminate
information about the passage of the bill six months back. But, it seems that the
Nepalese, even the educated ones, have not still developed the habit of keeping tab of the
media. Now, to refer to the more serious part of the lapses that have been traced in our
society, we can say that illiterate and uninformed villagers who are still unaware about
the passage of the bill must still be practicing illegal abortion.
Many women lose their precious lives after going through a
painful and unhealthy practice of aborting pregnancies. Those who still think that it is
banned by the law must be risking their lives for no reason. This is where the media and
the non-government organisations must really focus their attention. They should waste no
time in stepping up the advocacy campaigns to the far-flung districts so as to inform
everyone about the bill, which grants them the permission to abort pregnancies if they
pose a threat to their lives. The bill was passed after a protracted debate among the
intellectuals, parliamentarians and the media people. The sad part of the story is that if
women still continue to lose their lives through unsafe abortions, then the bill on
abortion rights would not be meaningful. Now that people have been given the rights to
abort fatal pregnancies, the government must be on its toes ensuring that proper medical
facilities are installed in health posts and hospitals for the purpose of carrying out
safe abortions. It should also make sure that only trained medical professionals are
allowed to carry out the abortions in a clean and disinfected setting. Generating
awareness and developing trained manpower and facilities would certainly help to bring
down the mortality rate of women whose labour and expertise are priceless for a developing
country like Nepal.
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