What are your thoughts on the right to access abortion? Do you feel it is a moral issue or one concerning choices and human rights? It’s certainly a messy question that is currently seeing heady division. Recently, the US Supreme Court ruled that there was no constitutional right to abortion in the US, upending the landmark Roe v. Wade case.
The ruling was met with outcry within the US and across the world, as this rare reversal of a long-settled law, which made abortion a mandatory right afforded to all American women as per the Constitution, now sees the power given to each individual states to decide the legality of abortion. Since the ruling on 24 June 2022, protesters have been seen demonstrating outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. denouncing its decision.
American President Joe Biden termed the ruling a “tragic error” and also shared the view that those in favour of this decision were “wrong, extreme and out of touch,” and that the justices who issued dissenting opinions noted that the Supreme Court’s ruling meant that “from the very moment of fertilisation, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term even at the steepest personal and familial costs.”
This ruling will see women in America being given far fewer rights than their own mothers and grandmothers and has made abortion and the right to choose to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term a widely-discussed topic world over, including in Sri Lanka – forcing us to take a look at where we stand when it comes to bodily autonomy.
Pregnancy and termination in the Sri Lankan context
Sri Lanka has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. In Sri Lanka, abortion is a crime as per the Penal Code. Section 303 provides that anyone deliberately causing a miscarriage, except for the purpose of saving a woman’s life, can be imprisoned or rigorously imprisoned for up to three years. The sentence may increase to seven years if the woman is “quick with child,” an archaic phrase meaning that the movement of the foetus can be felt. The same penalties apply to a person who performs an abortion and a woman who causes herself to miscarry.
However, in a progressive turn of events last year, then Justice Minister Ali Sabry issued a call for Parliament to consider legalising abortion in cases of rape, noting that the Government should move promptly to reform the law and go further to uphold women’s equal rights by allowing all women access to abortion. He encouraged the Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus to open a dialogue regarding the matter. Sabry’s statement came in light of the case involving a 13-year-old girl from Mullaitivu who died as a result of an illegal abortion after allegedly being raped by a family member.
According to research conducted in 2015 named ‘Decision making on unsafe abortions in Sri Lanka: a case-control study’ by Carukshi Arambepola and Lalini C. Rajapaksa, unsafe abortions contribute to 10-13% of maternal deaths in Sri Lanka, making it the third most common cause of death during pregnancy. This is not conclusive, however, since due to the illegal nature of abortions, there is very little data. One study that is still frequently cited dates back to 1999, showing an abortion rate of almost one in 20 among women and girls aged 15 to 49. In 2016, the Health Ministry estimated that 658 abortions were carried out every day in Sri Lanka.
The politics of abortion
Sri Lankan politics has largely stayed far away from this topic considering its controversial nature and our country’s highly religion-centric policies. However, we spoke to feminist activist and researcher Vraie Cally Balthazaar, who spoke of the Progressive Women’s Collective (PWC) that put together the women’s manifesto in 2019 prior to the Presidential Election which was used by the National People’s Power (NPP). She shared that the manifesto under the section on women provided that “all choices with regard to women’s bodily autonomy and child-bearing are the right of a woman, therefore all laws must be adjusted accordingly”.
Balthazaar added: “For someone like me now actively involved in politics, one of the facts that drew me to the NPP was this stance on bodily autonomy, because I believe that it is the right of a woman to have her choice, whatever her situation is. It is not up to the State or the Government or for society or even others in her own family to decide what she should do with her own body because it is her right and her right alone.
“I understand that it is a conversation that is happening globally and every time it gets pulled up here in a local context, we see both the State and religious leaders all coming together, all-male figureheads, to have this discussion about women’s bodies without even consulting women about their own bodies. The problem with not allowing women to make choices on bodily autonomy and things like abortion is that eventually they do happen but they continue to happen in unsafe places and that is not something we want to see. We are certainly of the opinion that the final choice is that of the woman.”
Balthazaar also addressed statistics around unsafe abortion, noting that incidents of unsafe abortions were very high and prevalent among young girls as well. “A lot of problems that we have are also tied to the deeply-rooted religious institutions and our absolute dismissal of sex education, which is integral when asking for change. It also falls under the umbrella of this patriarchal structure that we live in, which is why we have to continuously have these conversations on bodily autonomy.”
Abortions – a woman’s POV
Much like what the statistics indicate and what Balthazaar herself stated, when it comes to restricting or banning access to abortion, all that is being done is that the access to safe abortions is being taken away. However, regardless of the limitations and the many dangers, abortions will continue to happen.
Brunch spoke to two women who shared their personal stories of abortion to shed some light on the nature of obtaining an abortion in Sri Lanka and to help understand why a woman would choose to terminate her pregnancy.
The names of these women who came forward have been changed to protect their identity.
Now a married young professional, Rose shared how she sought out an illegal abortion in Sri Lanka: “I was 18 when I got to know that I was pregnant. I started to experience intense stomach pains, which I thought to be intense gastritis. I was sick to the point that I passed out and when I got to the hospital they told me that I was three months pregnant. I was incredibly shocked and my boyfriend at the time (who is now my husband) was equally shocked and at a loss on what to do.”
For Rose, the experience around her pregnancy and its termination was incredibly painful and unlike anything she had ever hoped to experience. “I think one of the most painful and most dispiriting parts of the abortion was when I was going through it – that pain, I felt my child die,” she said, adding that while her boyfriend was supportive, he did not quite grasp the gravity of the situation.
“Nobody really knew and we didn’t want to tell anyone either. I was in my room alone and my boyfriend would come and check on me. I even spoke to him recently as my husband about why he didn’t stay with me and he shared how his own mother also got an abortion and how he had seen her go through it, he had seen her go through period pains, and he just did not understand the severity of the suffering.”
Looking back, Rose highlighted that the painful experience of abortion was not something any woman would or should choose lightly. “Only another who has had an abortion would know this pain. I was three months pregnant. The more developed your foetus is, the more it will hurt. I was just a teenager at the time and I was throwing up for a whole week. I had no food in my body, I had no strength, and there were people telling me there was a risk of me dying because I was so weak.”
However, she reiterated that she did not regret her decision as she absolutely had to go through with it. “I didn’t want my kids to struggle, I didn’t want my kids to go through the pain of an unfavourable home, and I was not ready for a kid at the time,” she said, adding however that as a married woman now, she would never have an abortion again because it was the most painful experience of her life – both mentally and physically.
She also shared her surprise on how easy it was at the time to find a contact to gain access to abortion pills which were administered by a medical person. “Abortion is more common in Sri Lanka than you would think,” she added.
The Sunday Morning Brunch also spoke with Shana, who experienced a similar situation a couple of years ago. Only in a relationship for eight months at that point, she said that she had originally thought that if ever she faced a pregnancy scare, she would definitely keep the baby. However, when it came to the real deal, it was evident that she simply was not ready to raise a child.
“If I had to do it again, I would do the same. It’s illegal in Sri Lanka, so I am not sure how much I should even tell you. I was already four weeks pregnant when we found out so we had to quickly get a scan done and proceed before it was too late,” she said.
Shana, like Rose, also shared that despite the strict illegality of abortion, there was relatively easy access to methods of abortion, although much of it had been due to her privilege as someone with both financial support at the time and knowing the right people.
“I ordered the pills from a website and while the pills got here just fine, they were a little too delayed. The option I ended up choosing was pills which are allocated for women in rural areas to go through safe abortions. It was a course of 12 pills I had to take, four pills every six hours. You start bleeding instantly – heavier than the usual period – and you need to keep an eye out for dehydration and other adverse effects. You really shouldn’t be alone.”
More than the physical recovery, the emotional impact stayed with Shana: “The level of emotional trauma I went through all by myself was just too much – and all this was because my boyfriend refused to go and buy condoms from the pharmacy. I hated myself for a good while. I watched many movies with moms giving their babies up and guilted myself for months until I realised it was not my fault or anything like that. I loved that baby the way I could even if it was for a few weeks and it hurt me in ways I will never be able to understand. But like I said, if I had to do this again, I would have done the same thing. My only relief is that I would never let a man or society control me like that ever again. Take it from me; moms never forget their babies, they always stay with them, and that’s a whole other level of strength some people will never be able to understand.”
Medically speaking
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health Family Health Bureau Maternal and Child Health Director Dr. Chithramalee De Silva noted that as per Sri Lankan law, abortion was an illegal procedure. However, she opined that there were ways to ensure that women did not seek abortions – such as addressing the unmet needs of family planning.
“When a woman is seeking an abortion, that means that child is unwanted. Then we can say there has been an unmet need in family planning in that scenario. There are comprehensive channels of access to contraceptives in Sri Lanka – a good network through the MOH system and midwives, which many young people access. However, we also have to push for comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) education in schools. At least from Grade 11, children must be educated,” she said.
She also noted that there was a lack of post-abortion care in hospitals as well, which was a necessity because, while abortion was illegal, there was no lack of abortions taking place, and septic abortions, when acquired outside of a sterile medical setting, could be threatening to the lives of mothers. Dr. De Silva encouraged women to seek post-abortion care, noting that medical professionals should prioritise the mother’s health over other factors.
