Ed Szymkowiak of the American Life League in Stafford wants to eliminate U.S. funding for international family-planning programs. smc View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

View the Stafford County community page

A life-and-death issue

By RICK MERCIER

Date published: 3/9/2003

By Rick Mercier

First in a three-part series

Today: The debate over U.S. funding of population programs.

Focus: Group uses photography to explore women's issues. Page D5

Tomorrow: Local representative weighs in on battle over population programs.

Tuesday: Allegations of manipulation, abuses.

Rick Mercier, Viewpoints editor for The Free Lance-Star, traveled to Kenya to examine reproductive-health issues in the developing world. His research was made possible by a World Affairs Journalism Fellowship from the International Center for Journalists and the World Affairs Council.

THE GYNECOLOGICAL ward at Nakuru Provincial General Hospital could use more beds.

The hospital serves more than a million people in this part of Kenya's Rift Valley, and the gynecological ward overflows with women suffering from cancers of the reproductive system, uterine fibroids and fertility problems.

But a section at one end of the ward remains reserved for patients with serious pregnancy-related complications. Nursing officer Jane Gutu says the ward treats 30 to 60 women a month for such problems. Many of these medical emergencies, she says, are the result of illegal abortions.

The women who are treated and released from this section of the ward are some of the lucky ones. In the waiting room of the hospital's outpatient clinic, a poster distributed by Kenya's health ministry makes clear that plenty of women in this country of 30 million aren't so fortunate: "Over 5,000 girls die yearly from abortion Avoid being one of them!"

This East African nation--which prohibits abortion except to save the life of the woman--is no anomaly. According to conservative estimates, more than 75,000 women die each year worldwide from botched abortions, contributing significantly to high maternal mortality rates in the developing world.

Pregnancy-related complications, including those from unsafe abortions, are the leading cause of death among young women ages 15 to 19 worldwide, report UNICEF and the World Health Organization.