The situation of Unsafe Abortion in Malawi: A Feminist analysis and Position Paper

Abstract:

6-18% of Malawi’s maternal deaths are attributable to abortion related complications because governments, development partners and societies continue to neglect or inactively address the issue. This paper explores the issue of unsafe and illegal abortions from a feminist perspective, arguing that the implications of colonial constructions of African women’s sexualities as promiscuous, permissive and deviant juxtaposed with highly conservative imported Victorian and religious sexual norms deny women’s access to abortion and other sexual and reproductive health services and rights their importance and ascribe to women the status of invisibility. The feminization of poverty is also examined, with this paper arguing that the double victimization of Malawi’s rural dwelling women to abject poverty and the government’s inability to broaden the policy framework for reproductive care as it relates to women’s access to safe illegal abortions. This paper further discusses the dangers of an over-reliance on the language of western dominated empirical research process to paint an accurate picture of the situation of unsafe abortions in Malawi and argues that this negates the importance of women’s worldviews and knowledge systems that have been stunted by colonialism. Key recommendations include the need to prioritize a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary approach that places women and girls at the center of abortion debate and places renewed importance on the “personal as political” and the need to adopt a language of sexual and reproductive health that demystifies African women’s sexualities and sheds the shroud of moralism, shame and humiliation that hinders all progressive debate on safe abortion as a women’s health and human rights issue. 

Introduction:

Malawi is a democratic republic in Southern Africa with a population of 19 million. Self-identified as a “Good fearing nation”, Malawi is a former British protectorate with a majority Christian population alongside a significant Muslim minority. The population is mostly rural dwelling and it is considered a low-income country with a significantly high maternal mortality ratio.