The Kenya Human Rights Commission and the Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance Kenya, plan to hold a mock tribunal in an effort to "dispel the myths" about illegal abortions and develop an abortion policy for the country.

Women who have undergone clandestine abortions, as well as physicians and midwives who perform them, plan to testify at the mock tribunal, which will be modelled after international tribunals.

Abortion is banned in Kenya, but some physicians perform safe abortions for women who can afford them, Sarah Onyango, Regional Director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said.

She added that low-income women "turn to back-alley providers or to self-induced abortions using crude and dangerous methods." Joseph Karanja, a gynaecologist at Kenyatta National Hospital, said that after undergoing an unsafe abortion, many women seek treatment for gynaecological problems at public hospitals.

According to Onyango, a recent study found that 300,000 unsafe abortions occur annually in the country, 2,000 of which result in death and 20,000 of which result in long- and short-term injuries.

Source: Kaiser Network 18/Jun/07