Deputy health minister Dr Esther Muinjangue said that when it comes to the abortion debate she is more concerned about the psychological effect abortion has on women who do backyard abortions and the impact it has on many other systems of society.
Dr Muinjangue said this during her contribution to the motion on legalising abortion.
Member of parliament Margareth Mensah-Williams asked that motion be moved to next week Thursday, to allow for the debating of an equally important discussion on national reconciliation.
She said that as a woman, she is very concern about the health, well-being and safety of our young women and girls with regards to the legalisation of abortion topic.
According to the deputy minister, research in 2016 indicates that the annual number of abortions globally is estimated at 56.3 million, with 250% of pregnancies ending in abortion.
Making reference to a 2011 World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Muinjangue said that it was speculated that unsafe abortion procedures lead to more or less 13% of maternal deaths, or 47,000 women annually.
She further said the real impact of unsafe abortion in relation to maternal deaths in Namibia is not well known or documented and that this could be attributed to the fact that abortion in Namibia is illegal and backstreet abortion cases go unreported.
“There is secrecy around this issue and that is what we need to break. This is the gist of my motion, that as national leaders we need to allow debates on abortion so that we can weigh the pros and cons of it.”
