Restrictive abortion legislation and maternal mortality: Case study of Mityana and Kampala districts
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Date
2010-09
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School of Law
Abstract
Despite restrictive abortion legislation and all the efforts made by both the government and RHU in promoting family planning as a first step to reducing unwanted pregnancies and the resulting abortions and maternal mortality, many women continue to seek and obtain unsafe abortions. Apart from causing death and other health complications, abortion has many undesired consequences to individual and the economy. Need was therefore seen to investigate a correlation, if any, between abortion and maternal mortality in Uganda. The study collected and analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data using descriptive and correlation study designs. The study population in two study areas (Kampala and Mityana districts) was divided into two categories and both structured and unstructured questionnaires used to get data from them in addition to other methods discussed in the report. Thereafter a comparison was made of both qualitative findings and the findings of quantitative data as analyzed according to thematic areas and study objectives. Among the findings of the study was that to a large extent abortion exists because of inter alia, failure in pregnancy prevention. Furthermore, the prevalence of abortion has a significant impact on the quality of health services. Several conclusions were made following the study which include that repressive abortion legislation does not prevent abortion and on the contrary it prevents safe abortion and turns abortion into a major killer of women. It was recommended, inter alia, that new laws be enacted to allow abortion for reasons relating to the physical and mental health of the women, risk to their life or health of the foetus, rape, or incest or to social, socio-medical or socio-economic conditions. Furthermore, there is need to educate the community on public health problem of unsafe abortion, The education messages should rotate around the legal status of abortion and avoiding unsafe abortion, prevention of unwanted pregnancy and recognizing and seeking appropriate treatment for post abortion complications.
Description
A Thesis Presented to the School Post Graduate Studies and Research Kampala International University Kampala, Uganda in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Laws
Keywords
Abortion legislation, Maternal Mortality, Mityana district, Kampala district