Ive Seen Women Suffer: Malawis Religious Leaders Fight For Legal Abortions

Deaths from backstreet abortions have united pro-choice Christian and Muslim clerics around ending the strict ban Throughout his ministry, the Rev Cliff Nyekanyeka has led funeral services for women who died after an illegal abortion in Malawi. He has visited hospitals where doctors have shown him the aftereffects of such procedures, including pictures of what he describes as rotting uteruses. And he has seen women struggling with unwanted pregnancies. It is this lived experience that has led Nyekanyeka to advocate for a womans right to choose, and to campaign for change in a country with . In Malawi, women seeking an abortion can be imprisoned for and anyone administering an abortion to a woman could face 14 years in prison it is permitted only to save a womans life. The law was introduced by the British under colonial rule.