{{Unwanted or unplanned pregnancies are in most cases associated with ignorance and drug abuse in particular in Rwanda.}}
While such unplanned expectations are avoidable, it is likely to be an opposite case when one is under the influence of alcohol especially illicit brew and narcotics.
Drunkenness and consumption of illicit brew and cannabis in most cases makes one, especially women to lose their senses hence easy to seduce and to lure into unprotected sex.
This in the end leads to abortion, infanticide arguing that the person responsible for the pregnancy refused to take responsibility and that they are not able to give a child basic necessities.
On April 21, a 23 year-old woman in Rukomo sector of Nyagatare district was arrested for allegedly terminating a five-month pregnancy.
The suspect allegedly threw the fetus in a dustbin where it was recovered by area residents.
The suspect, a bar attendant in Gahurura cell argued that the would-be father had denied responsibility of the pregnancy and that she lacked means to sustain the pregnancy and to take care of the child, once its born. These are vague excuses normally given by culprits.
Abortion is illegal and punishable under article 162 of the penal code.
Abortion is only allowed on four grounds include sexual assault, incest and on medical grounds and it has to be declared by a medical practitioner and approved by a legal court.
It is therefore a wise decision for women to plan when to have children, have protected sex to avoid such unwanted pregnancies and abortions, which might also result into death.
Most of these unsafe abortions are carried out by unqualified providers such as traditional healers, lay practitioners or pharmacists using dangerous methods, which are unhygienic and carry a high risk of complications, and may, at times, lead to death.
About 47 per cent of pregnancies in Rwanda are said to be unintended, according to a study, the first of its kind, jointly conducted by the Ministry of Health, the National University of Rwanda’s School of Public Health and the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute, released in 2012.
RNP
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