Moses Magadza
Lilongwe – Unintended pregnancies have significant and broad ramifications for individuals, families, and societies, and they have serious personal repercussions for the affected women and girls, including on their education, well-being and health – as many of them resort to unsafe ways of inducing abortions.
This was said by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) East and Southern Africa regional director, Dr Bannet Ndyanabangi, in a virtual address to the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum’s 51st Plenary Assembly Session on 14 July 2022. He highlighted that for many women and girls, whether to become pregnant is no choice at all. This is imposed on them. He said the SADC Parliamentary Forum has it within its powers to change the trajectory of the future and give hope to many young people of this region.
Dr Ndyanabangi said the UNFPA annual flagship report, State of World Population report 2022, or SWOP in short, entitled ‘Seeing the Unseen: The Case for Action in the Neglected Crisis of Unintended Pregnancy’, brings to the fore the plight of women and girls who are unable to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health, and lack autonomy over their bodies.
He said in East and Southern Africa, the most recent data show that close to half of all women, or 48%, lack the power to make decisions on their sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights – when to seek reproductive health
care, when to have sex and if to use contraception. “A quarter of women in the East and Southern Africa region, or 49 million women, want to stop or delay childbearing but are not using a method of contraception, and only a third of sexually active women in the region use a modern method of contraception,” Dr Ndyanabangi said.
He added that the situation had deteriorated further in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. “In the first 12 months of the crisis, the disruption of supplies and services lasted on average 3.6 months, leading to as many as 1.4 million unintended pregnancies,” he told the parliamentarians who met in Lilongwe, Malawi. Dr Ndyanabangi cited a personal experience as a young doctor in Lubaga Hospital in Uganda where he performed hundreds of cases of dilatation and curettage, a procedure for removing tissue from the uterus.
“Most of them had a miscarriage or induced abortion. In addition, the majority of these pregnancies were unintended. While many of the women survived, some were lost, and unnecessarily so,” he told his audience, which included speakers of national parliaments.
He noted that in southern Africa, 65% of pregnancies between 2015 and 2019 were unintended, and 36% ended in abortion.
Dr Ndyanabangi highlighted that unintended pregnancy has been an invisible crisis for far too long.
“Today’s call is to prioritise urgent action to address early and unintended pregnancy. It is time for us to ‘See the Unseen’,” he urged the forum. He said it was self-evident that unintended pregnancy cannot be reduced to personal responsibility, morality or behaviour. It is also about changing social norms, legal frameworks and policy decisions.
He applauded the SADC PF for being active in promoting progressive policies and legislation in support of women’s and girls’ rights. Among them is the SADC model laws on child marriage and GBV, the Tshwane Declaration on SRHR, HIV and gender equality, and the Gender Responsive Oversight Model. He also commended the recent meeting of Africa and Asian Parliamentarians which had 13 strong recommendations advocating full implementation of the ICPD agenda, and provision of comprehensive rights-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services to all – including the provision of sexuality education for adolescents, as affirmed by the SDGs, which is vital for preventing unintended pregnancies.
To unveil the crisis of unintended pregnancies, and collectively work towards finding a solution, Dr Ndyanabangi called on the legislators to lead on law and policy reforms where these limit the freedom of expression and choices of young people as reflected in the SADC PF Tshwane Declaration.
“These limitations negatively impact our young people’s ability to access integrated SRHR/HIV services, sexuality education, social protection and harm reduction services,” he said.
“The voices and needs of women and girls must shape our responses to the crisis of unintended pregnancies. Partnership with women’s, girls’ and youth-led organisations can allow for more collaborative approaches to formulating and implementing policies,” he added. He then suggested that everyone – from governments to individuals – must fully appreciate the repercussions of leaving women and girls behind. This means convincing family members, the media, religious leaders and partners to value women and girls beyond – and inclusive of – motherhood.
“We must ensure women and girls equal value, and recognition at every turn, from home to the clinic, to the halls of every country’s capital building,” he said.
“These efforts will bring us closer to our professed shared vision for humanity – a world in which every pregnancy is wanted, and every person enjoys the full realisation of their rights and potential,” Dr Ndyanabangi implored the SADC parliamentarians.