A quarterly international newsletter on sexuality, sexual health, and sexuality education.
Volume 2, Issue 3 - Winter 2002/2003
Nepal Signs Historic Law Legalizing Abortion
On September 26, 2002, King Gyanendra of Nepal signed an historic law that legalizes abortion on broad grounds.The law is "a major achievement in the fight to end gender discrimination against women in Nepal," said Chitra Lekha Yadav, the Parliament's deputy speaker.
Nepal's legislature passed the bill in March 2002, almost four years after it was introduced. It went into effect by the King's consent.The new law now allows women legal access to abortion services; a move that health workers and women's rights activists are hoping will reduce the high maternal mortality rate, which is currently one of the highest in the world with 539 per 100,000 live births.
Under the new law, women can obtain an abortion up to 12 weeks after becoming pregnant, up to 18 weeks after becoming pregnant from rape or incest, any time after becoming pregnant in cases of fetal impairment, or at any time after becoming pregnant when a woman's life or health is in danger.
Under the previous law, all abortions were prohibited and violations were punished by three years to life imprisonment for women. It is estimated that one in five women in prison in Nepal were incarcerated for having had an abortion.
Despite significant gains in health, education, and employment, Nepal remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with nearly half of its population subsisting on one U.S. dollar per day. In contrast to the global pattern of higher female life expectancy, Nepali women die younger than their male counterparts at 57 versus 58 years. Life expectancy, infant mortality, literacy, health care access, and income levels vary significantly across Nepal's geographic regions, caste, and social groups.
Maternal mortality remains a major public health problem. According to UN statistics, Nepal's maternal mortality rates are among the highest in South Asia and the world. A 1998 Nepalese government study on maternal mortality and morbidity reports a total of 4,478 maternal deaths per year, or one death every two hours.
About 50 percent of all maternal deaths in the country are attributed to unsafe abortion, compared to the global rate of 13 percent. It has been reported that complications of unsafe abortion are the leading reason for hospital admissions (54 percent) in Nepal.The problems associated with the absence of safe and legal abortion services are compounded by Nepal's vast unmet need for family planning services: more than seven out of every 10 Nepali women still lack access to contraceptive methods.
Thousands of preventable deaths of Nepali women are linked to Nepal's criminalization of abortion, and the new law is an essential step in dramatically reducing the number of maternal deaths.
The passage of the law does not, however, address the fate of the women currently serving prison sentences for allegedly having abortions while the ban was in place.
The Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) in Nepal and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) have recently released a report that examines the human rights violations under Nepal's former abortion ban, as well as those arising from enforcement of the ban.
"Abortion in Nepal: Women Imprisoned" features stories of some of the women in prison, many of whom are serving lengthy sentences. Most of these sentences were imposed upon women who had no opportunity to hire lawyers or to defend themselves in court. Low-income and rural women were disproportionately affected by the criminalization of abortion because they were more likely to have to resort to unsafe abortion and to face prosecution and punishment under the law.
Nepal Minister of Health Sarah Singh Bhandari has agreed to take action to secure the release of women imprisoned for violating the abortion ban.
Despite this landmark reform of the abortion law, safe abortion services will remain out of reach for many women in Nepal, particularly for rural and low-income women.The Bush Administration's global gag rule poses an added barrier to ensuring access to safe abortion services. It prevents the many local reproductive health providers receiving U.S. family planning assistance from providing or educating women about abortionrelated services.These organizations also will not be able to provide counseling or referrals for women to obtain services elsewhere.
The Family Planning Association of Nepal (FPAN) decided to sacrifice its nearly $250,000 in U.S. funding to keep advocating for safe abortions. "We [FPAN] simply could not stand by and watch countless women suffer and die without doing everything we could to prevent this misery," Dr. Nirmal K. Bista, FPAN's executive director, told the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee in July 2002.
Despite the difficulties in assuring quality health services and access to information and counseling, groups throughout Nepal are successfully working to ensure the health and well being of Nepali women.
For more information, contact:
Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD)
P.O. Box 2953
Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: 977.1.242683
or 977.1.266415
Fax: 977.1.240627
E-mail: fwld@andolan.wlink.com.np
Family Planning Association
of Nepal (FPAN)
P.O. Box 486
Kathmandu, Nepal
Phone: 977.1.524.648
Fax: 977.1.524.648
E-mail: fpan@mail.com.np
Web site: http://www.fpan.org
Center for Reproductive Law
and Policy (CRLP)
120 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005 USA
Phone: 917.637.3600
Fax: 917.637.3661
E-mail: info@crlp.org
Web site: http://www.crlp.org
To download "Abortion in Nepal: Women Imprisoned": http://www.crlp.org/pdf/nepal_2002.pdf
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