Women’s rights activists in Zimbabwe are celebrating a major court victory. The High Court has ruled that abortion after marital rape and after any sex resulting in pregnancy with any girl under the age of 18 must be treated as legal because rape and sex with an under-age girl are forms of illegal assault. High Court Judge Maxwell Takuva said that since Zimbabwe’s laws already criminalize marital rape and sex with a minor, the victims should be allowed to abort if they become pregnant.
The ruling is significant, given Zimbabwe’s restrictive abortion law that often leads women and girls into illegal and unsafe backstreet abortions, that in many cases turn fatal.The issue was first raised with the Court by the group Women and Law in Southern Africa who argued that this aspect of the law was unconstitutional.
SOURCE: Zimbabwe High Court scraps abortion restrictions. Video (2 minutes) with Pindai Dube. YouTube, 7 December 2024 ; CTV News, by Farai Mutsaka, Associated Press, 3 December 2024.