This archive report was first published on 16 July 2019.
On July 16, 2019, the High Court nullified the Ministry of Health's withdrawal of service delivery standards and guidelines on abortion, a move that has sparked renewed calls for the ministry to provide essential health services to women.
When the current Constitution was being written, abortion was a major contentious issue, with opponents using it as a tool to convince Kenyans to vote against the draft. However, the majority of Kenyans voted for the new Constitution, and the ministry was left to develop guidelines to allay the confusion.
The ministry constituted a committee to lead the development of service delivery guidelines on abortion, which included lawyers, gender experts, religious leaders, and community representatives. The committee held three stakeholder meetings with a cross-section of organizations to create consensus, and the final document was validated by the last meeting.
The guidelines prioritized prevention, providing guidelines on how families, the religious community, and the school and health systems can curb unintended and unwanted pregnancies. They also defined situations where abortion would be necessary to save life and preserve the health of the woman and the fetus, and detailed how to manage women who had experienced unsafe abortion.
However, the ministry withdrew the guidelines without warning or consultation with stakeholders, claiming they had been misused. This move threw the health sector into serious confusion, leaving health workers unsure of how to handle women whose lives were endangered by pregnancy.
Health workers who sympathized with women having issues around abortion were victimized, and some ended up in court. Sadly, many women died as a result of the confusion, and it is estimated that many lives were lost due to the lack of abortion-related health services.
Despite the recent court order, the ministry seems to have ignored it, leaving women to continue dying for lack of essential health services. It is imperative that the ministry obeys the court's order and provides the necessary guidelines to ensure that women receive the care they need.
