For Victims of Wartime Rape, Abortion Out of Reach
For Victims of Wartime Rape, Abortion Out of Reach
Here's what one Kenyan woman says about being forced to carry through a pregnancy that resulted from a rape during a conflict period. Obama could end such suffering by clarifying that U.S. law actually does allow abortion funding in such circumstances, a health activist says.
Liberia rape victimA rape victim on her way to a session with a caregiver, at a safe house in Monrovia, Liberia.Credit: UN Photo/Staton Winter
UNITED NATIONS (WOMENSENEWS)-- In March, Jacqueline Namuye Mutere, a citizen of Kenya, was scheduled to participate at a panel here on the role of donor governments in responding to conflict-related rape. Due to a visa problem, however, she was denied entrance to the United States and could not make the panel, where she was going to give a personal account of being victimized by rape during a period of violent conflict.
Determined to make others understand why she so desperately wanted an abortion when she became pregnant, she spoke with Women's eNews recently via Skype and told her story.
Mutere had been working in Nairobi as a community developer to empower people with information and tools for personal and community advancement. She also consulted on HIV prevention and treatment until she was raped in January 2008, during a spate of violence following a disputed election in Kenya.
"My life became very difficult. My health went down," she said. "I had just given birth to my fourth child less than a year before. My body wasn't ready to go through another pregnancy. And I didn't want anyone to know I was pregnant so I tried to hide it. And the mental pressure of hiding something, while at the same time feeling my body growing, that affected me very much. I didn't eat or sleep well and started losing weight."
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******Rape is wielded as a weapon of war in 21 countries, according to a U.N. report released last year.********
For victims in these countries, research has shown that access to comprehensive post-rape care is crucial to any hope of recovering physical, mental and emotional health. It must include, according to another report issued by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, access to "the safe termination of pregnancies for survivors of conflict-related rape." Without it, women, if they survive, suffer from lasting consequences that affect their ability to earn a living, care for their children and generally prevent them from piecing their lives back together.
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http://womensenews.org/story/international-policyunited-nations/150427/victims-wartime-rape-abortion-out-reach