Abortions legal again in Afghanistan

[Guest guest]

(Now Terror against the Unborn is Legitimized, thanks USA.)

Abortions legal again in Afghanistan

Kabul, Jan 15

 

Abortion up to the third month of pregnancy is legal again for Afghan

women if their health is in danger, but after that they risk six

months jail if they turn to backstreet abortionists.

 

All abortions were banned under the Taliban militia from 1996-2001.

But according to other readings of the Koran, Islam leaves the choice

of contraception and the extreme solution of abortion up to

individual families.

 

"It is an issue which is left up to the private sphere of the family

and about which Islam is very discreet," said Sahib Nazar, history

professor at Kabul University.

 

"The laws and customs of Afghanistan don't allow abortion on demand

or criminal abortions. There are very few illegal abortions," said

doctor Rahima Zafer Staniczi.

 

The 32-year-old woman doctor has run the main women's hospital in

Kabul, the Rabia Balji, for three years.

 

"Since I have worked at this hospital, there have been no illegal

abortions. Before that I don't know," she said.

 

"In our hospital, no patient can terminate her pregnancy unless she

is ill or she can't carry it to term for medical reasons."

 

Gynaecologist Maruf Same, who has spent 24 years in his profession,

said that under previous Islamic governments "there was family

planning, contraception and we also gave advice about abortions. But

that's no longer the case."

 

Same, 55, was one of the few male doctors who did not flee the

country when the Taliban barred male physicians from treating women.

 

He runs the gynaecological hospital of Nazo Ana in Kabul, where he

says there is no alternative to the law.

 

"To have a legal abortion, you have to get certificates from three

different doctors and permission from the ministry that the patient

has to have a medical termination," said health ministry spokesman

Abdullah Fahim.

 

Because of the strict rules "we only get one or two requests for an

abortion out of the 150 patients we treat daily," said doctor Nasrin,

who works at the Nazo Ana hospital.

 

But there are other reasons why women would wish to have an abortion,

said one Afghan woman, asking to remain anonymous.

 

The post-natal mortality rates among women are extremely high, and

amid a lack of contraceptives, women on average give birth to 6.7

children, according to figures from the UN children's fund, UNICEF.

 

Afghanistan and Sierra Leone have the highest rates of deaths during

pregnancy and child-birth at 17 out of every 1,000, according to

figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

 

"For 100 to 200 dollars, you can have an illegal abortion in

Afghanistan. It's a crime against our religion and our laws, but it

happens all the same," said the Afghan woman.

 

"Maximum penalties can include six months in jail for the person

carrying out the abortion and for the woman involved," she said.

 

"Apart from that in the case of backstreet abortions, women often

arrive in hospital with perforated uteruses, vaginal infections,

haemorrahges or shock," she added.