BLANTYRE, MALAWI - Malawi's National Assembly has rejected a motion to debate liberalizing the country's strict law against abortion, which is only allowed if the mother's life is at risk. Despite thousands of Malawian women dying each year from unsafe abortions, lawmakers on Thursday unanimously rejected a motion to debate the long-delayed Termination of Pregnancy Bill. The bill, pushed by activists since 2015, aimed to expand legal abortion from cases where the mother’s life is at risk to include rape, incest, fetal deformity, and threats to health. Actually, there was no single ‘yes.’ Out of all members in parliament, all of them refused.”A group of about 50 female activists demonstrated outside Malawi’s parliament Thursday in support of the bill before the debate was rejected. The current 160-year-old law criminalizes abortion, unless the mother’s life is in danger, with offenders facing up to 14 years in jail.

Source: Ethiopian News March 12, 2021 12:11 UTC