The Girls Activist Youth Organisation (GAYO) and Her Liberty say the media have a crucial role in reporting on challenges young women face after opting for unsafe abortion. The two organisations made the call during a day-long media orientation on unsafe abortion reporting among young women.
Her Liberty Project Manager, Kattie Mikwala, said many young women die due to unsafe abortions while some are left with serious problems, even following safe abortion. She observed that some young women take an overdose of drugs to terminate pregnancy while others use herbs, thereby resulting in serious complications, to the extent of needing to have their uterus removed.
According to Mikwala, research has shown that 18% of women die annually due to unsafe termination of pregnancy. She, therefore, appealed to Zomba-based media to take responsibility for writing about safe abortion on top of advocating for a law that should allow women to terminate pregnancy using recommended ways and means to avoid death. “We want to work with the media, and we believe they have the capacity and ability to write more about safe ways of terminating pregnancy among young women,” she added.
GAYO and Her Liberty are implementing a project on Unsafe Abortion with support from Amplify Change in Senior Chief Malenia in Zomba, and they want to reach out to about 5,000 youths.
One of the participating reporters, Lauryn M’banga from Yoneco FM, said the orientation was relevant and pledged to write more on safe termination of pregnancy now that she had got the right information about it.
SOURCE: Malawi24, by Raphael Likaka, 30 September 2024.