IS ABORTION ABOUT TO BE LEGALIZED?

For the past 50 years since Roe Verses Wade case of abortion in the US specifically in Texas came about, a lot of sittings by the Supreme court in the US concerning the same have happened and the case is bringing an uproar all over the world.

Let me take you back to 1969. Jane Roe got pregnant and wanted to terminate the pregnancy but was not allowed to terminate it. Abortion back then in Texas was illegal but could only be legal if it was on the purpose of saving the mother’s life. Jane Roe's reasons of wanting to terminate the pregnancy was that she was jobless, not married and she already had two children.

Jane Roe had her two attorneys who filed a case to the US federal court on her behalf against her local district attorney Henry Wade who had denied Jane the right to abort saying that Texas abortion law was unconstitutional.

In 1973, the US Supreme court ruled in her favor indicating that the constitution provides a right to privacy and with this she won the case but the delay had already made her give birth. The Supreme court however added some other laws that would go handy with the first one. They included a TRIMESTER rule that split the whole pregnancy period into three cycles.

The rules indicated that in the first trimester that is month one to month three the women was allowed to abort and no prohibitions whatsoever would come their way. In the second trimester that is month four to month six the government required a legal and reasonable health regulation and in the third trimester that is month seven to nine the woman was not allowed to abort at any given condition.

The decision was not well accepted by the legal community as it got criticized a lot. With the critics in hand the Supreme court decided to revisit the case in 1992 but reassured the fact that the woman’s decision to carry out an abortion is constitutional protected but it however abandoned Roe’s trimester framework in favor of a standard based on fetal viability.

Recently the final draft that contains the final verdict of whether abortion will get legalized or not that was to be presented in June 2022 leaked and people all over the world have raised concerns over the same.

Speculations have it that the draft contained an overturn towards the law and women all over are protesting in unison saying, "My body my decision". 

If US is to legalize abortion higher chances of Kenya as a country getting attracted to the same debate will rise. If the draft contains an overturn to mean they are illegalizing abortion over 65 countries in the world that legalize abortion to date will in one way or another get affected mostly financially not unless they decide as countries to illegalize abortion first in their countries so as to continue getting aid.

African culture has always considered abortion as to being illegal though there are 6 out 54 African countries that legalize abortion.  Mathare constituency in Nairobi county where abortion is highly illegal is the most affected zone with people unsafely aborting daily and a maximum of 2,600 women die each year in hospitals due to over bleeding after having tried an unsafe abortion at midwife's hidden clinics. From a recent survey is that 43%  of the pregnancies that are always recorded from slums are always unwanted and with this since they are poor with no plan of having to contain another mouth the best they can think of is aborting. With their poor state the best they can afford is visiting a midwife who will help them get rid of the pregnancy at a cheaper price and later live suffering from unprofessional abortion complications.

The debate on abortion will never seize until every citizen is taken through both the ethical and repacation basis of having to understand from what abortion is and its effects to be able to really understand what they are getting themselves into.