Authorities in Kenya have banned international health organisation Marie Stopes from carrying out abortion services in the east African country. Abortion is illegal in the country unless a mother’s health is in danger.
Kenya’s Medical Practitioners Board said it reached that decision after investigating complaints that the group’s adverts were promoting abortion, the BBC reported on Sunday. Abortion is illegal in Kenya unless a mother’s health is in danger.
In a letter sent to the organisation by Kenya’s Medical Practitioners Board said: “Marie Stopes Kenya is hereby directed to immediately cease and desist offering any form of abortion services in all its facilities within the republic.”
Marie Stopes, however, responded by saying that it operated within the jurisdictions of the law, offering counselling services including post-abortion care.
The move has also increased fear among some Kenyans that illegal backstreet abortions which are a danger to the lives of the mothers would now be on the increase.
However, Alfred Mutua, who heads the government agency in charge of approving adverts, welcomed the ban before he went on to accuse the previous US government of “causing moral decay in Kenya by promoting abortion”.
“Democrats pushed the pro-abortion view and the pro-LGBT stance on us – an agenda that is alien to our own culture,” he said. He further asserted that the adverts run by Marie Stopes were “unprofessional” and made abortion look “cool”.
Kenya is one of 37 Commonwealth countries that have laws criminalising homosexuality.
-The Citizen
