By: Prashna Maharjan
Nobody plans for an unwanted pregnancy. It can happen to a teenager who wasn’t ready, a women whose contraception failed, a survivor or abuse, or a mother who already has more than she can handle. Whatever the circumstance, one thing remains true: every person deserves access to safe, dignified healthcare and that includes abortion.
Let us look at the facts. A lot of women die because they got an abortion in a way that was not safe. When people cannot get an abortion, they do not stop trying to get one. They just try to get one in a way that is not safe. They might go to someone who’s not a licensed and registered doctor, take unregulated medicines and desperate measures that cost lives.. Making it hard to get an abortion does not mean it will happen less. It just means it will be more dangerous.
In Nepal it has been legal to get an abortion since 2002. This was a landmark step forward. Even though abortion is legal, a lot of people, especially young women and girls in rural areas still don’t know what their rights are or where to go to get safe healthcare. Fear of judgement keeps them silent, and silence puts them at risk.
Safe abortion is not about encouraging abortion. It is about ensuring that when someone faces that decision, one of the hardest of their life, they are not forced to choose between their health and what they want. It is about trusting people to make informed choices about their own bodies and making sure the healthcare system supports them.
No one should die from something that could have been prevented. No one should suffer alone because healthcare feels out of reach. Abortion is not something to argue about. It’s a right of every women.
