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Bali needs safe abortion access
A number of reproductive health and women's rights activists agreed Monday to advocate the pro-choice approach in the handling of some 18,000 unwanted pregnancies each year in Bali
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number of reproductive health and women's rights activists agreed Monday to advocate the pro-choice approach in the handling of some 18,000 unwanted pregnancies each year in Bali.
Pro choice includes the rights for women to manage their own reproductive health such as time of pregnancy and the number of children to be raised.
The issue was discussed at a workshop titled "Women's Rights and Unwanted Pregnancies" organized in Denpasar by the We Love Teenagers (Kita Sayang Remaja or Kisara), an NGO focusing on teenagers' empowerment.
An estimate in 2006 showed that Bali had 18,582 unwanted pregnancies annually. The data was compiled by the Bali office of the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN) based on married women not using contraception and the number contraception failures in the province.
"The number is much smaller than the real number because the calculation does not include teenagers. It is like the tip of the iceberg," said Nyoman Mangku Karmaya, a reproductive health expert.
Mangku said most unwanted pregnancy victims used dangerous abortion means such as using non-medical drugs.
This was apparent from results of a four-month assessment held by Kisara in cooperation with the Bali branch of the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI) from September to December last year.
The assessment showed that there were 156 patients of the Kisara Youth Clinic (KYC) with unwanted pregnancy problems, or some 90 percent of the total patients.
"Most of them need access to safe abortion methods because 84 percent of them are unmarried, while the rest are still in school," said Citra Wulan Sucipta Putri, a doctor at the youth clinic.
"So they are not financially and mentally ready."
Citra said her office was in a dilemmatic position to handle such condition because there was not a legal aspect for safe abortion.
"All we can do is to have counseling sessions and give them options," she said.
"Unfortunately, we cannot follow up with more of 80 percent of the patients."
From patients who can be followed up, most of them chose getting married or unsafe abortions.
Mangku, who is also an advisor for PKBI Bali, said the phenomenon was caused by the lack of information on sexual health for teenagers.
"We will keep advocating reproductive health as a curricular item at school or being integrated with other subjects," he said.
Mangku emphasized that access to safe abortion methods was not limited to abortion itself, but also sexual education for people with active sexual lives.
"Unwanted pregnancies are likely to end in abortions because there is no guarantee from the government to help the women *should they continue with the pregnancy*," he said.
"The societal and cultural stigma in Indonesia does not give women any options other than to abort, leading women to have unsafe abortions."
Mangku said it was no wonder that Indonesia had the highest mother mortality rate in Asia, because only the haves could afford to have an abortion.
The pro-life policy being adopted by Indonesia refuses to provide access to safe abortions, with the belief that fetuses already have the think.
"The fact is, abortion has existed for a long time to manage fertility," Mangku said.
"Jamu to discharge the fetus, young pineapple, bamboo piercing and other abortion tools are already part of culture in Indonesia and they are not safe."
