In Cameroon, recognising that safe abortion is a critical component for reproductive health services and implementing more feasible abortion policies can greatly reduce maternal mortality and morbidity. Girls/women throughout the country generally face challenges like sexual violence and unwanted pregnancies which usually put them in vulnerable positions.
The most effective way to combat these vulnerabilities is to provide information which enables women and girls to make informed choices, take for instance the case of Sabina who got pregnant by rape and did not want to have the baby but is unaware that the law has a special provision that would allow her get a safe abortion. Thousands of girls like the non-informed Sabina exist out there who are clueless on the fact that despite abortion being highly restricted in Cameroon medical abortion remains legal for pregnancies emanating from rape and also when the pregnancy poses as a threat to the mother’s physical health.
Notwithstanding the legal dispositions of abortion, the availability of these services in the country remains largely limited, reasons why non-governmental partners like the Society of Gynaecologist and Obstetricians of Cameroon (SOGOC) have called for and have taken actions towards the scaling up for the provision of Comprehensive Abortion Care services with widespread efforts to train and equip physicians and staff nurses at public hospitals and primary health care centres (PHCCs) throughout the country to provide abortion services using manual vacuum aspiration (MVA).
Today, as we join the world to celebrate the International Day of the girl child we encourage our communities to join us in making information available on Comprehensive sexual education and preventing unwanted pregnancies among young people. The society remains committed to her goal of serving women.
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