Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the statement by Ms Gail Teixeira that a lack of education possibly contributed to the death of Karen Badal, mother of two, from a botched abortion (‘Lack of education could be cause of women seeking pregnancy terminations from uncertified doctors, Teixeira says’ Sunday Stabroek, January 8). Ms Teixeira’s comments are designed to deceive and show a callous disregard for and serious lack of understanding of the lives of most Guyanese women. Abortion is legal now, Teixeira says; we’ve done our part, and self- congratulatory pats on the back are dished out.
The fact that Ms Teixeira and her colleagues try to hide though, is that none of the public hospitals in Guyana offers pregnancy termination services. (I personally inquired at all the public hospitals in all ten regions of the country.) Once again, the Government of Guyana has failed its womenfolk, but instead of accepting any culpability, blame is shifted and shoulders shrugged.
The fact is that women in Guyana who require abortions have few choices. Because abortion is not done at any of the public facilities, if they have thousands of dollars to spare ($10-$30,000), they can seek private medical assistance to end their pregnancies. Others, less fortunate, buy off-prescription pills, drink various ‘bush tea’ concoctions, throw themselves down stairs, push knitting needles inside themselves, etc. Some succeed and survive, albeit sometimes with serious injuries; others do not and pay with their lives, like young Ms Badal.
These women do not die or injure themselves because they do not know that abortion is legal in Guyana now. Like Karen Badal, they die mainly because affordable abortion services are not offered at any public medical facilities.
With less than a dozen doctors officially authorized to do the procedure, none operating at any of the public hospitals, and the main Georgetown Public Hospital taking the view that abortion is an “added burden,” poor women in Guyana who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy are, in reality, not much better off today than in decades past.
Terminating an unwanted pregnancy is every woman’s right and public clinics and hospitals in Guyana need to recognize that and move immediately to provide the necessary services.
It is not enough to put a law on the books; if women who need abortions cannot afford or access proper medical care in the public domain and are forced to go to unlicensed, incompetent butchers operating bottom house clinics, the problem remains and Ms Teixeira has nothing to be proud of.
RIP Karen Badal. No women deserve to die simply for exercising their right to choose whether or when they want to reproduce.
Yours faithfully,
Sherlina Nageer MPH
