|
Although it is illegal, abortion is common
in Haiti.
“I have had three abortions,” a
24-year-old mother of two explained to Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW).
“The first time, I was 15 years old. I was still in school. I
would have brought shame on my family if I had given birth to
the child. I hid my pregnancy from my parents and then had a
procedure. For the other two times, I already had children… I
decided to abort rather than put the future of my children in
jeopardy.”
“I got pregnant when I was 19
years old because my boyfriend didn’t know how to correctly use
the condom,” a 21-year-old woman explained. “I could not punish
my parents like that. I was still in school, and I couldn’t take
on the responsibility of a child, so I had an abortion, with my
parents’ consent.”
Haitian women have the
procedure in secret. Women from the lower classes are most at
risk, because, unlike wealthy women, they cannot travel to
specialized clinics in places like Florida. Poorer women have to
use various medicines from pharmacists or traditional healers,
or they have operations performed by doctors working without any
oversight from health authorities.
Since last May, when the topic
of abortion was brought to the fore, the debate has often
focused on proclamations about motherhood and women’s duties.
HGW decided to undertake an investigation into the reality of
abortion in Haiti, in the hopes that in the future, the debate
might be based on fact rather than mythology.
Olga Benoit of the organization
Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn (Solidarity for Haitian Women or
SOFA) recognizes that abortion is part of Haitian society,
despite being illegal. For her, fake doctors (called “charlatans”
in Haitian Creole) pose the greatest risk.
“There is a big difference
between what the law says and what is really happening on the
ground,” she said. “Ever since 1987, SOFA has noted that girls,
adolescents and young women are exposed to enormous risks –
risking their health and even their lives – because they have to
go to a charlatan to get an abortion.”
“As the years go by, more and
more doctors have complained about the cases of women in
critical condition who end up in the hospital after an
abortion,” she added.
It is difficult to know how
many women have died following abortions in Haiti. During a
recent workshop, Public Health and Population Minister Dr.
Florence Duperval Guillaume said that “of every 100,000 live
births, we have recorded 630 maternal deaths,” due to
complications. The ministry speculates that 20% to 30% of
maternal deaths are due to botched abortions.
Studies estimate that there are
about 40 million abortions per year worldwide, with more than
four million in the Americas. Globally, half of all abortions
take place under unsafe conditions and each year, 70,000 women
die, and over eight million suffer medical complications
following abortions due to improper conditions or follow-up.
According to the recent report
Abortion World Wide: A Decade of Uneven Progress, 98% of
abortions in poor countries take place in dangerous conditions.
Vulnerable women in poor countries where abortion is illegal run
the most risk. In Guatemala, Mexico, Pakistan, and Uganda, for
example, 45% to 75% of women living below the poverty line have
complications after clandestine abortions.
According to the Haitian
government study EMMUS-V HAITI 2012 overseen by the Public
Health and Population Ministry (MSPP), of 352 women who admitted
to having an abortion since 2007, “40% said they had
complications afterwards.”
Obstetrician and gynecologist
Nicole Magloire, who is also executive secretary of the National
Consultancy Against Violence Against Women, said that Haiti has
doctors capable of performing surgical abortions safely, but,
“because it is illegal, good doctors who are capable of doing
the procedure in safe sanitary conditions have to operate
clandestinely, and this makes it more expensive, and thus
largely inaccessible.”
Completely Unregulated
Seated in a pharmacy full of medicines,
cosmetics, and baby items on Rue Monseigneur Guilloux downtown,
a pharmacist in her fifties explains the choices in familiar
terms.
“If the woman hasn’t yet
reached three months, she can take Cytotec pills by the mouth
and another in the vagina, with a little beer,” she said. “If
she is already at three months, she needs to do a curettage,
which will cost 3,500 gourdes (US$ 81.40) in our laboratory.”
“Cytotec” is the commercial
name for misoprostol, an anti-ulcer medicine frequently used to
induce miscarriages in Haiti. Misoprostol is the most common
abortion method because it is low priced, easy to find, and
because no doctor is needed.
Women need curettage if their
pregnancy is advanced beyond three months. Curettage is a
procedure involving an aspirator device.
On another street, Joseph
Janvier, used clothing is displayed on hangers along the wall of
a building with no sign. Behind the shirts and pants, the walls
are painted green and white, the traditional colors for
pharmacies. Inside, a young woman sits in the hallway to answer
questions and to explain the medical “menu,” which is not
posted. Among other services, she sells abortion via injection.
“If Cytotec does not work, we
can do an injection,” she said. “That costs 1,000 gourdes (US$
23.25). It’s not risky. We are open Monday through Friday.”
The woman is selling “Pitocin”
or oxytocin, a medicine based on a hormone that causes the
contraction of the uterus. Some women use it to cause an
abortion.
“I frequently see women who
have taken a Pitocin injection,” a nurse told HGW. “It’s easy to
get at pharmacies.”
“Leaf doctors” or traditional
healers offer a less expensive method. They prepare a medicine
with plants, pills, and alcohol, with all the risks one might
imagine. It could be considered the “Haitian medical method.”
“I mix a ‘dose’ leaves from
pwason dan nwa (“Black Teeth Fish” plant) and the roots of
verbena, logwood (Campeche), and mahogany, mixed with
chloroquine and Saridon (acetaminophen, propyphenazone, and
caffeine), with six to ten antibiotic pills, and then wine or
clairin (a strong Haitian alcohol made from sugarcane),” a
woman with 50 years of experience explained to HGW. “If the
dose doesn’t work, then I give the woman a purgative. In some
cases, you have to wait about 22 days to get the hoped-for
result.”
Punish women or legalize abortion?
The discussion of sex is a taboo in Haitian
society, but the discussion of abortion is even more so. Haitian
law outlaws the practice in all its forms. Article 262 of the
Penal Code punishes both the woman who has sought an abortion,
as well as those who assist her.
The debate on the possible
legalization of abortion is very contentious. Statements of all
sorts have been made in the press since last May, when the MSPP
launched the debate over possible legalization. But the
controversy is inevitable and necessary, according to Minister
Dr. Guillaume.
“All over the world, abortion
is one of the great controversies,” the minister said in an
article in Le Nouvelliste. “Haitian law goes as far as to
condemn those involved in abortion to a life sentence in prison.
This is why many of the women who die following a procedure are
registered as having died of another cause.”
Various religious leaders have
taken stands opposing the legalization in Haiti.
SOFA believes legalization is urgent.
“So long as the state continues
to consider it a crime, it will do nothing to assure that women
who are obliged to have an abortion can do so under conditions
that do not put their lives in danger,” Benoit noted. “At the
moment, people can take advantage of women. There are women who
have been butchered by doctors but who have nowhere to turn.”
A 43-year-old woman with two
children knew that abortion was risky. She did it anyway: “My
husband was brutal. I knew that sooner or later, I would leave
him, so I had an abortion so that he wouldn’t be leaving me with
one more child. I already had two.”
Haiti Grassroots Watch decided to
withhold the names of the women and of the various abortion
providers interviewed for this story due to the several
penalties to which both would be subject, according to Haitian
Law.
Haiti Grassroots Watch
is a partnership of
AlterPresse,
the
Society of
the Animation of Social Communication (SAKS),
the Network of Women Community Radio Broadcasters (REFRAKA),
community radio stations from the Association of Haitian
Community Media and students from the Journalism Laboratory at
the State University of Haiti. |
