COTONOU, Benin — When lawmakers in the West African nation of Benin met last year to consider whether to legalize abortion, they heard shocking testimony from Dr Véronique Tognifode, minister of state affairs. the country’s social problems, about what she had seen in her years of working as a gynecologist.
She recounts how she and her colleagues fought to save women who tried to end their pregnancies by taking dubious pills or bleach, inserting sharp objects into their bodies, or having abortions unexpectedly. legitimacy from dangerous hacks known by locals as “mechanics”.
The death toll is unacceptably high: one in five maternal deaths in Benin is due to unsafe abortion, according to the government – more than double the continental average continent of Africa, ie most unsafe area around the world to terminate pregnancy.
Dr Tognifode, one of three gynecologists who served as senior officials in the Benin government, said: “Women and girls are having abortions in one way or another, and those ways are impossible. can imagine. “We can’t live with what we see in the hospital.”
A year after that testimony, Benin, with a population of 12 million, mostly Christians and Muslims, became one of the few countries in Africa where abortion is widely available.
In October 2021, legislators voted to legalize abortion in most cases, allowing abortion when the pregnancy is likely to cause a woman “material, educational distress , profession or ethics”. Previously, abortion was only permitted in cases of rape, incest, or fetal abnormalities, or the mother’s life was in danger.
not like in some Latin American countries, where abortion was recently legalized in response to grassroots feminist movements, in Benin the law was changed after years of discreet lobbying by advocates and doctors. They also get support from the country’s president, politicians said.
A year after the law was passed, some clinics have seen more women seeking abortions but less needing treatment for those who are broken.
Benin’s move to expand abortion rights runs counter to the direction in the United States, where states are tightening restrictions and The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. WadeThe 1973 decision to legalize abortion nationwide.
It also runs parallel to most of Africa. About nine out of 10 women in sub-Saharan Africa still live in countries with restrictive abortion laws, according to Guttmacher Viện Institutea non-profit organization dedicated to reproductive health.
Benin is one of the few countries on the continent – including Cape Verde, Mozambique, South Africa and Tunisia – where abortion is widely permitted.
Read more about abortion issues in the US
The matter is being discussed elsewhere. Legislators in Liberia debated a bill in June that would legalize abortion in most cases, but the outcome remains unclear. Government of Sierra Leone, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the worldhas vowed to decriminalize abortion.
Abortion rights advocates in Africa are concerned that overturning Roe v. Wade could impede liberalization in Africa.
“Benin has now recognized what the United States denies, but the impact cannot be ignored,” said Bilguissou Baldé, regional director for French-speaking Africa at Ipas, a nonprofit that advocates for abortion rights. of ending Roe v. Wade for Africa.
In Benin, however, many women now feel more free to ask about the procedure, health workers said, although authorities have yet to release official statistics on abortion rates. .
Serge Kitihoun, medical services director at the Beninese branch of the International Federation of Planned Parenthood, said: “Women bluntly tell us: ‘I want an abortion. “That would have been unthinkable years ago.”
One morning this past summer, a 21-year-old student went to a clinic in Cotonou, Benin’s largest city, for her second appointment in a week and told a counselor that she was four weeks pregnant. . Student Chantal, who asked to be named for fear of being stigmatized, said neither she nor her boyfriend were ready to be parents. First she wants to finish her degree and start working.
“Without my academic pressure and my parents wanting me to focus on them,” she says, she and her boyfriend would be ready to have a baby. “But I can’t right now.”
Under the new law, Chantal’s abortion is legal because the pregnancy could expose her to economic and educational hardship, counselor Clémentine Degnagni said. Since the law was passed, her clinic, the Nanhua Family Promotion Association, has gone from performing about 30 abortions a month to 50 a month.
The parliamentary vote on the bill in Benin limited years of backstage lobbying by abortion rights advocates. The Health Minister, Benjamin Hounkpatin, also an obstetrician and gynecologist, told supporters in 2018 that he was interested in improving access to abortion, according to Dr Baldé of Ipas.
Twice last year, legislators gathered at a hotel outside Cotonou and heard presentations about unsafe abortion results from Dr Tognifode, the Minister of Social Affairs and from gynecologists and other nurses.
Dr. Tognifode says failed abortions render hundreds of women infertile and kill at least 200 women a year in Benin — and that number could be two or three times higher. Studies have shown that restricting access to abortion can small effect about the number of women seeking abortions, and instead it Threatening women’s lives.
Tognifode said, “How much more intestine do we need to get out of the uterus?”
One lawmaker, Orden Alladatin, said in an interview that lawmakers were shown images so “brutal” that he was persuaded to support the bill.
Pastor Eric Okpeitcha, general secretary of the Roman Catholic Church, said the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, who make up about a quarter of the population, have sought to lobby against the bill, but they were only informed of it the night before the vote. the country’s bishops’ conference. “We tried to get lawmakers to vote against it, but it was too late.”
“It’s not our culture,” Father Okpeitcha said of abortion. He argued that the criteria in the new law were too permissive and vague: “Material distress – who can define this?”
No referendums or surveys were conducted to gauge public opinion. A number of lawmakers, including the chair of Benin’s lower parliament, loudly opposed the bill.
Dr Kitihoun, from the group Planned Parenthood, said he lobbied lawmakers until the last minute, following some of them into the bathrooms in the Houses of Parliament, as they rested before the final vote. together.
After hours of debate, the National Assembly voted unanimously to pass the bill. Opponents either left the building or claimed to have changed their mind. The counting of votes is never made public.
According to Dr Tognifode and Dr Hounkpatin, 64-year-old President Patrice Talon, a successful businessman in the cotton industry, took it upon himself to push for the legislation. Many argue that the president’s support is consistent with his record of passing women’s rights measures: strengthening sentencing for sexual assault; criminalize sexual relations between university professors and the students they teach; allows mothers to give surnames to their children.
But critics say lawmakers have little choice but to match a president, who analysts say has become the increasingly autocratic since he was elected in 2016, imprisoning political opponents and stifling press freedom.
Whether Benine society is ready for legal abortion is another question. country has decrease in its birth rate in recent decadesup to 4.7 births per woman, but it’s religiously conservative — about half of the population are Christians of various denominations and a quarter are Muslim.
Simon Séto, a surgeon and gynecologist in Abomey-Calavi, near Cotonou, said he has observed some hypocrisy around abortion. “Priests preach with blinded eyes, but when their daughter or wife needs us, they know very well how to find us,” he said.
According to gynecologists and consultants, the taboos surrounding abortion, as well as the lack of psychological support, leave women struggling with guilt and hurt.
In interviews with four women who recently had abortions, only one said she felt comfortable telling a friend or loved one about it.
“Abortion is like being different. It’s like you’re not a saint anymore,” said Précieuse, 24, a student who had an abortion from a doctor who also asked her to have an implant.
Benin has an active youth association affiliated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation that is currently leading sessions to raise awareness about contraception and the new abortion law.
On a recent afternoon in the suburbs of Abomey-Calavi, a group of seven young women, all trained to be hairdressers, gathered to hear Aubierge Gloria Attinganme, a member of a youth group, explain Loved that going to an unlicensed “mechanic” for an abortion could be fatal, but the new law legalized most abortions.
This was the first time any woman had heard of the law.
Flore Nobimé contributed reporting from Cotonou.
