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Right to abortion has been legalized; Women still serving life-sentence on abortion charges

It has already been three months since the Civil Code (11th amendment), the law that legalizes abortion in Nepal, came into effect. However, women who were held in abortion cases earlier under the old law are still serving jail-sentence in various prisons in the country. There are hundreds of such women inmates throughout the country.

Political stability plays a crucial role in solving such social issues. According to women right activists the then government had promised to release the women prisoners under the new law. “That could be done through cabinet decision but as the parliament has been dissolved and new government formed the promise could not materialize,” says Sapana Malla, an advocate.

“While the release of such women prisoners depends solely upon the government’s discretion, the release of detainees is still a difficult task,” added Malla, “How can the Executive interfere in the cases that is under consideration of the Judiciary?”
Apart from socio-legal challenges there are difficulties related to infrastructures. Disseminating information to the disadvantaged group is even more challenging. Even after a year since the most controversial Bill was passed, a large number of the country’s women population still are unaware about the abortion rights they have achieved. Only 22 percent of the population knows that abortion is legal now, according to a recent study of Centre for Research and Environment and Population Activities (CREPHA). 49 per cent men and 24 per cent women think the abortion law has not yet been implemented.

Women in Nepalgunj and Kapilbastu have heard about the passage of women’s bill but they still do not know what abortion right means. “Women here go to India for abortion. We don’t know the service is available here,” said Durga Khatri at Nepalgunj. According to her, women want to do abortion secretly and normally they do it once they come to know that they are having a girl child,” she said.

Even the new law does not allow such “sex-based-abortion.” But as Nepalgunj lies nearby the Indian boarder it is easy for women to go to India and abort fetus if it is a girl. Actually, rural women are unaware that the new Act legalizes abortion of up to 12-week-old fetus under any circumstances provided that it is done with the help of government authorized paramedics or surgeons but the act also permits victims of rape and/or incest to abort the fetus until 18 weeks.

As a matter of fact, abortion was not a novelty in Nepal. It had been widely practiced for generations, but clandestinely, and remained a subject of debate among policy makers for over three decades. Women were deprived of the right to safe and legal abortion, consequences of which, however, have been serious. Nepal has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world with half of the maternal deaths attributable to unsafe abortions,’ according to reports. This translates into almost 12 maternal deaths per day. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the rate of maternal deaths in childbirth at 1,500 per 100,000 live births in Nepal.

Do women now go to the government hospitals for having abortion and how many hospitals actually do provide the service is yet another serious question that can tell how far the new act has been implemented? In fact no government hospital provides facility for safe abortion till date as they await “guidelines” from the government. It should be recalled that the Bill legalizing abortion rights was passed a year back and it’s been already four months since it was finally approved but the government is still not prepared to implement the same.

“Though we have the facility to provide safe abortion, we have not been able to provide the service as we are still waiting for guidelines from the Health Ministry,” says Dr. Bimala Lakhe, Director at maternity hospital. Actually, the maternity hospital has been providing service like “post-abortion care.” It is the service delivered to women coming with abortion complications.
“These women undergo abortion privately and come up with such problems. If the hospital delivered the service, such complications could be certainly reduced as hospitals have trained and authorized medical paramedics,” Lakhe added. The Ministry is at the final stage of mulling “guidelines” for directing government hospitals to begin service delivery. The government-owned Bir hospital has only outpatient department to treat gynecological patients.

According to her, even practicing doctors need special training to get the authority to conduct “safe abortion.” “The law was needed for those disadvantaged women who can’t afford high fees at private clinics for undergoing unsafe abortion by unauthorized doctors or quacks but if the government does not deliver facility at the earliest; what’s the use of it?” query women rights activists.
At this point, the conclusion anyone can draw is— though the new law is a remarkable achievement for Nepali women, implementing it is a challenge due to many practical problems. All concerned should take serious step to make the new act functional, which could substantially reduce maternal death rate and increase women’s life expectancy.

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