Antananarivo (AFP)

You have to cross a rickety wooden gate, cross the kitchen garden of his neighborhood of Antananarivo and there, along a red brick wall, behind a narrow enclosure of corrugated metal sheets planted towards the sky, hides the secret of Volatiana .

"When I do the count, there are about eight fetuses buried here," says this Madagascan mother. And a baby born at seven months of pregnancy, she adds immediately. "He was screaming when I put it in a plastic bag".

Volatiana - her name has been changed to preserve her anonymity - has all been worn.

On this piece of earth that leaves nothing to suspect her entrails, she sighs. "What I felt was deliverance (...) To have another baby, it would be hell".

In Madagascar, a predominantly Christian country where Pope Francis is expected next Friday, abortion is illegal, including in cases of rape, and punishable by 10 years in prison.

But with six dependent children, a small house without running water and an alcoholic husband, Volatiana "can not take it anymore".

In case of a new pregnancy, she only plans one decision: to put an end to it. As one in four women on the Big Island, according to the association Nifin'akanga, which defends the legalization of abortion.

The women who use it practice on average between two and eight abortions in their lives and come from all social backgrounds, says one of the founders of the NGO, Mbolatiana Raveloarimisa.

- 'Angel Mowers' -

Volatiana knows several abortionists - their names have been changed - or "angel makers".

Dety, first. She administers herbal tea of ​​avocado leaves, introduced into the cervix a probe or a ball nifin'akanga - a plant with abortifacient properties - and provides massages of the lower abdomen.

Lucie then. The retired midwife practices in her house bathed in urine smells on a tarpaulin with dried blood stains. After prescribing antispasmodics, she collects the fetus, equipped with a speculum and a clip that never ends.

Dety invoices his intervention 10.000 ariary (2.5 euros), Lucie 200.000 ariary (50 euros).

With her monthly salary of 140,000 Ariary, Volatiana most often uses Dety, except in case of complications. But the procedure is long - up to three days - and very painful.

"I'm waiting for Friday to have an abortion, so I do not miss a day of work," says the 44-year-old maid.

"On weekends, I go home to take herbal teas and massage my stomach," she says the face tense, memory of hardened pain. "When I'm about to have an abortion, I ask my kids to go out and play outside."

In these non-existent hygienic conditions, Volatiana "thanks God for being alive". "Once I had abortions, I almost died."

- 'Hypocrisy' -

In Madagascar, a poor country of 26 million inhabitants, three women die each day following a "spontaneous or induced abortion," according to Lalaina Razafinirinasoa, head of the Marie Stopes association.

Every year, the NGO takes care of 20,000 victims of complications of an abortion practiced with banana skin rolled into a ball, nifin'akanga, hanger or even bleach or cold ashes.

In addition to haemorrhages and infections, "the biggest risk is organ perforation," says Dr. Anderson Randriambelomanana, head of maternity ward at Andohatapenaka Hospital in Antananarivo.

Public hospitals deal with these complications. "Our duty is to heal, not to denounce," he pleads.

A pure "hypocrisy", indignant Mbolatiana Raveloarimisa. "Why not take care of women before these complications, instead of sending them to the slaughterhouse?"

Volatiana could avoid these successive nightmares with a contraceptive. But a consultation is half a day of work lost, she says.

The family planning policy in Madagascar, where the fertility rate exceeds 4 children per woman, is a failure. "The barriers are financial, cultural and related to the availability of contraceptives," Lalaina Razafinirinasoa lists.

Public hospitals offer good for free, but the offer is very insufficient.

- Fears and rumors -

One fifth of women who want to access planning are deprived of it, according to Marie Stopes.

First for cost reasons. An IUD at Marie Stopes costs 2,000 ariary, a 5,000 ariary implant. "2,000 ariary, it can be half of the daily wage of a street vendor", explains Lalaina Razafinirinasoa.

And then in the Malagasy imaginary, contraceptives continue to maintain all fears. For many women, they make you fat or cause malaria and cancer.

Another barrier to contraception, women often depend on the consent of their husbands. In Malagasy society, "the man is a demi-god" and "the woman must comply with her wishes", explains Mbolatiana Raveloarimisa.

"If he needs me (sexually), whatever the time, I'm doing it," says Volatiana. "If I refuse, he hits me and puts me out."

In 2017, the Malagasy Parliament confirmed the ban on abortion. However, prosecutions remain extremely rare.

In a country where the pope exerts a great influence on the leaders, the pro-abortion is taken to dream, without much illusions, that Francis takes advantage of his visit to amend the speech of the Catholic Church against the abortion.

"Why does someone who does not have a uterus, who has no daughter, who does not have a wife have laws to dictate to women?", Enraged Mbolatiana Raveloarimisa.

While waiting for an improbable legislative change, Volatiana must live with her heavy secret. "Sometimes, I put flowers" in the cemetery to fetuses, she says. She talks to them, too. "I pray that they understand my choices".

bed / pa / jlb

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