Policy Brief on Abortion Stigma in Kenya

Under the You Can project supported by WGNRR Africa that aims to reduce stigma levels on CSE, abortion and contraception. Zamara Foundation and Youth Empowerment Movement Kenya developed this policy brief on abortion stigma in Kenya to help manage opposition and the adverse effects of abortion stigma on adolescent girls and young women, so as to reduce the case numbers of unsafe abortions.

As of 2021, the female population of Kenya was 27.7 million persons. Over the last 50 years, the female population of Kenya grew substantially from 6.09 million to 27.7 million persons rising at an increasing annual rate that reached a maximum of 3.94% in 1982 and then decreased to 2.26% in 2021. In 2020, Kenya’s male-to-female ratio stands at 98.76 males per 100 females. Meaning that the total population of females (women and girls) in Kenya is higher than that of men.

This therefore greatly affects and shapes the country’s health and development agenda; as more women and girls increasingly need health and education/information services that include sexual and reproductive health rights. Women and girls are not a heterogeneous population thus making ‘rights’ an issue of priority.

Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that are allowed or owed to people based on a legal system, ethical theory, or social convention. The issue of women’s reproductive health can not be separated from rights.

 

Download the full policy brief here