Illegal abortion in Côte d'Ivoire, the ordeal of young Ivorians
Audio 19:30
A young woman who recently terminated a pregnancy.
© Sidy Yansané
By: Sidy Yansané Follow
27 mins
While voluntary termination of pregnancy remains prohibited in Côte d'Ivoire, except in cases of rape or incest, clandestine abortion is a common practice among women.
The school environment is particularly affected, the NGO Médecins du Monde estimating that 76% of Ivorian women who terminate their pregnancy still go to school.
Publicity
At the end of the morning, the sun is not tender with the population of Soufré, capital of the Nawa region, in western Ivory Coast. To avoid its rays, several people, mostly women, take refuge in the courtyard of the inner courtyard of the town hall, patiently waiting for the various municipal services to receive them. You have to walk through the narrow corridors to escape the hubbub, and knock on the secretariat door, a cramped room with life-saving air conditioning. Bernadette Oupoh made it her office, both to provide the secretariat of the town hall, but above all to gather women who need to confide.
For these women, “Maman Oupoh”, as they affectionately call the 50-year-old, is first and foremost the president of the Namané Coalition,
“Let's take conscience”
in the Bété language, a group of associations and organizations of civil society committed to the reduction of unwanted pregnancies, particularly among adolescent girls and in schools. Under the watchful eye of a spectator, her hand resting on her arm, Mrs. Oupoh tenderly addresses Mariatou *, 20 years old:
“You have to see me as your mother. Everything you tell us will not come out of this room. "
The trembling voice, his eyes fixed on the ground, the student BTS Commercial management seems to struggle to pronounce a word, a sob punctuating every sentence.
Like 290,000 Ivorian women each year, Mariatou voluntarily terminated her pregnancy. She gets pregnant while still in high school. She chooses not to keep the child. A decision taken in agreement with her boyfriend at the time.
“It was only when I was six months pregnant that I realized I was pregnant,
” she says.
My boyfriend accompanied me to a clinic that deals with abortions, telling me to lie about the length of the pregnancy to pay less. But on examining me, the doctor realized. "
Clinic, the establishment bears only the name,
" it did not look like the usual clinics "
, by the admission of the young woman.
The high school student then went to this clinic a second time, this time alone because her companion refused to accompany her.
For her, the ordeal begins with the attitude of the doctor.
"He asked me to lie down, ordering me:
" Here, we do not cry!
», She remembers with emotion.
I felt like wind inside my stomach.
Then something that we cut.
I was in so much pain that I got up and rushed to the bathroom to hide.
He shouted at me:
“No!
you're going to dirty my clinic!
"" The work finished, she goes home, traumatized.
She continues to go to school but prefers to hang out in the yard rather than return to class.
To the point of doubling it.
Since then, the student has fallen pregnant again:
“But this time, I had decided to keep my child. I told myself whatever the ordeal, I will overcome it. "
His parents, always ignoring the first abortion of their daughter, insisting she aborts. But Mariatou is holding on, today she is the mother of a little girl. This ordeal, she had never told anyone before Maman Oupoh.
“I was ashamed, but I was especially afraid of my parents' reaction,
” she explains to herself
. Even to my girlfriends I never said anything, I am suspicious. Today, I feel free from a weight that I have been dragging for three years. "
Opening the voice remains a necessary step to regain self-esteem.
“It frees up a lot, for her but also for us!
judge Bernadette Oupoh, who, when younger, lost two children to complications during pregnancy.
It is as if these events have just happened and that we are helping him to find himself, to become like everyone else. "
If abortion remains illegal in Côte d'Ivoire - except in cases of rape or incest - and punished by six months to three years in prison, it is above all the taboo that weighs the most in society. And this despite the serious health consequences.
“In the community, apart from a few more open people who talk to their daughters, we rarely talk about it because of religious beliefs
, deplores this midwife from Soubré who insists on her anonymity.
There is a great risk of bleeding because they use rods or other inappropriate techniques. I remember the case of a young lady in Abidjan who had to completely remove her uterus. This woman will no longer be able to take a pregnancy. "
Death remains the most serious consequence, in a country where the United Nations Development Program estimates that for every 100,000 births, more than 600 Ivorian women die in childbirth. That is almost three times the average for developing countries.
Faced with this impossibility of approaching the subject of abortion in society, the population of Soubré decided to take it up and carry out prevention on the risks related to sexual health. There are adult referents, called the Tontons and the Tatas, who make themselves available to address these questions. Youth are also mobilizing. At La Voix de la Nawa radio, high school students come every week to host programs on this theme, in order to advise listeners and tell them which mistakes to avoid. These schoolchildren call themselves the Young Ambassadors.
“We organize educational talks in the field
,” explains Young Ambassador Tigana Hawaou, a second year student at high school 1 in Soubré.
We go to a neighborhood and we bring together about twenty young people. After choosing a theme, we use a picture box to illustrate the point. Sometimes some young people accuse us of talking about things reserved for adults, but most of the time they are receptive and the message of prevention gets through. "
The network of Young Ambassadors is a program set up in 2016 by Médecins du Monde. The NGO is investing in the region of Nawa to fight against pregnancies in schools. A real scourge in Côte d'Ivoire.
"Our surveys show that 85% of women who have unsafe abortions are under the age of 18
," worries Stéphanie Baux, the general coordinator of the organization in Côte d'Ivoire.
There is a concern from the government which wishes to limit pregnancies in schools, in particular with a zero pregnancy program through a set of awareness-raising actions, but that is still insufficient. "
Côte d'Ivoire has yet signed and ratified the Maputo Protocol of the African Union, article 14 of which deals in particular with sexual and reproductive health, as well as the right of women to dispose of their bodies.
But according to Stéphanie Baux, the state has never fully applied it.
There is no specific law on sexual and reproductive health, despite the proposal of a draft law in 2016, which was never adopted due to blockages from religious and community leaders.
The young ambassadors raise awareness about sexual health on La Voix de la Nawa radio station.
© Sidy Yansané
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