High Court to decide on landmark post-abortion care case
The Center is asking a Kenyan High Court to prevent the state from arresting, detaining, and prosecuting women who seek post-abortion care. The case concerns PAK, a 16-year-old girl who sought medical attention after experiencing bleeding and severe pain during pregnancy. The Kenyan constitution recognizes the right to emergency medical care and the right to an abortion when the woman’s life is at risk. But in practice, pregnant people and their health care providers have been prosecuted for seeking and providing post-abortion care, including in the case of medical emergencies.
The Daily Nation quoted the Center’s brief that “the court should declare that the arrest, detention, and prosecution of PAK and other women of reproductive age for seeking post-abortion care and forcing them to undergo medical examination is a violation of their fundamental rights under the constitution.”
The Daily Nation: High Court to decide on landmark post-abortion care case, 12.28.21
Read more about the case:
- Center for Reproductive Rights: The Misalignment Between Kenya’s Constitution and the Penal Code on Access to Reproductive Health Care, 07.06.21