Beating the Odds

When I tell people that I'm intending to go back to Mbarara to build relationships with unwed, young mothers, often they ask whether or not abortion is very common. It's hard to pinpoint numbers like this in a culture where detailed, documented records aren't as common and so many cases go unreported. Yet I've tried to do some research on this topic and thought I'd share the information with you, too. 

Let me first start by saying that abortion is illegal in Uganda, except where the mother's life is in danger, such as in the case of cardiac disease, renal disease, or eclampsia. 

But that doesn't mean it isn't happening at an alarming rate.

That being said, there are over two million conceptions in Uganda every year.

775,000 of these pregnancies (39%) are unwanted, and 50% of these unwanted pregnancies belong to girls in their teens and early 20's.

350,000 of these unwanted pregnancies (45%) end in induced abortion (1).

Of the babies that beat these odds, there are still approximately 125,000 unwanted births each year in Uganda. Some of these women weren't able to afford an abortion or the abortion failed, and the baby survived.

I read that "of the 20 women in Uganda who die due to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications every day, four to five of these are due to induced abortion" (1). The following are items that are commonly used by women attempting to induce their own abortions.

So what happens to these unplanned and unwanted babies? Ones like Emmanuel, James, Innocent, and Esther?

Unfortunately, many of them are abused and/or abandoned. There are many reasons and circumstances through which children are abandoned in Uganda, and failed abortions is among them.

You see, to be pregnant and unmarried in Uganda is one of the most shameful things a girl could experience (don't even get me started about the lack of responsibility boys and men have). There seems to even been a cultural shift where the younger generations, who are engaging in unprotected sex, have more fear of being pregnant than contracting HIV. 

"With HIV, you swallow ARVs and nobody will know," says Claire, 16, "but with pregnancy, the whole world will judge you. My parents would kill me! I would drop out of school!" (2)

This one quote from a young girl sums it all up perfectly. These are the very issues I desire to address with young women who have life growing within them. 

Fear of judgment: Where sin runs deep, God's grace is deeper. Man looks at the outside, but God sees the heart.

Broken relationships: We have a Great Redeemer who restores and recreates. He takes our brokenness and makes it beautiful. 

Incomplete education: There is a family of believers ready and willing to come alongside our sisters and assist them in finishing what they started.  

Though I am painfully unqualified and entirely inadequate for the depth and breadth of this ministry, I know that these women who have found themselves in such a desperate situation could use some Good News.

The message that God loved us at our darkest.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: 

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Romans 5:8

1. news article from New Vision

2. another article from New Vision