About the case

About the case

In January 2024, Violet Zulu, a single mother of two young boys, was arrested in Zambia and sentenced to seven years in prison for procuring an abortion. A survivor of child marriage and the sole breadwinner for her family, Violet was employed as a domestic worker and could not afford contraception. When she sought contraceptive services at a local health facility in Ngo’mbe, she was asked to pay 50 Kwacha (about USD 2), an amount she could not manage. Unable to access contraception, she later became pregnant.

When Violet returned to the same facility to seek a safe abortion, she was again turned away because she could not raise the 800 Kwacha fee (about USD 35), which was equivalent to her monthly income. Out of options, she resorted to using traditional herbs to terminate the pregnancy.

Violet was then arrested and detained for 19 days without post-abortion care, psychosocial support, or access to her children. On January 13, 2024, she was brought before the Magistrates’ Court without a lawyer or legal aid. Lacking proper information about the charge against her, Violet pled guilty and received a seven-year custodial sentence.

Zambian abortion law

Zambian abortion law

Zambia’s Termination of Pregnancy Act permits abortion on broad socio-economic grounds, including when a woman’s circumstances would prevent her from caring for a child. But the cost of the procedure–as well as the cost of obtaining the three doctors’ signatures required for it–is often prohibitively high. Thus, while the act may provide a pathway to abortion for women with financial means, women like Violet remain unable to access the care they need.

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