Rising cases of abortion prompts review of law
Rising cases of abortion prompts review of law
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The health ministry confirmed on Monday a recent finding that
some two million abortions are performed every year in the
country and singled out the failure of contraception methods as
the main cause.
Azrul Azwar, director general for community health at the
health ministry, said that his office estimated the number of
abortions at between two and 2.4 million cases annually.
A researcher from state-run Gadjah Mada University in
Yogyakarta, Muhadjir Darwin, revealed over the weekend that an
estimated two million women had abortions per annum, mostly
through unsafe means.
He said data showed that most abortions involved single women,
rape victims or married women whose contraception method had
failed.
Azrul said abortion was usually an option undertaken by a
woman who did not want to have more children, but the failure of
contraceptives to prevent a pregnancy was another reason.
Aside from contraception failure, abortions were also
triggered by financial constraints and premarital sex among
teenagers.
Azrul said although the figures were only an estimate, they
indicated that abortions in the country had reached an alarming
level.
There was not much the ministry could do but to campaign on
the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, as the existing laws
still outlawed abortion under any and all circumstances, he said.
"Despite the grave risk of having an abortion through unsafe
procedures, there is nothing we can do to persuade those who opt
for abortion," he said, adding that the country's Criminal Code
prohibited abortion.
He said the ministry had begun to rewrite the law on health to
outdo the criminal code by making abortion legal for health
reasons.
Separately, an activist with the Indonesian Planned Parenthood
Association (PKBI), Ramona Sari, said the lack of access to
medical facilities prompted women to go seek out illegal health
providers for abortions.
"Less than 10 percent of abortions were carried out by
authorized medical workers, while the remaining 90 percent were
conducted through unsafe procedures," she told the Post.
She also put the blame on the stereotype surrounding medical
workers who were willing to provide abortions for health reasons,
as a reason why women preferred illegal practitioners.
"A doctor will lose their reputation after they take the risk
of helping a woman to have an abortion, although their true aim
is to save lives," she said.
Given the mounting cases of abortion, she slammed the
government and religious leaders who still condemned abortion in
the name of humanity.
"What kind of humanity prefers meting out death to millions of
women each year because they must resort to unauthorized
providers to have an abortion?"