Tanzania’s Abortion Provisions

The Penal Code, Chapter 16 of the Laws Principal Legislation [Revised Edition of 2002], Sections 150-152, 219 and 230

150.  Attempts to procure abortion

Any person who, with intent to procure miscarriage of a woman, whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to her or causes her to take any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever is guilty of an offence and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

151.  Procuring own miscarriage

A woman being with child who with intent to procure her own miscarriage unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatsoever, or permits any such thing or means to be administered or applied to her, is guilty of an offence and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

152.  Supplying drugs and instruments to procure abortion

Any person who unlawfully supplies to or procures for another anything whatsoever, knowing that it is intended to be unlawfully used to procure the miscarriage of a woman, whether she is or is not with child, is guilty of an offence, and is liable to imprisonment for three years.

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219.  Child destruction

(1) Subject to subsection (2) any person who, with intent to destroy the life of a child capable of being born alive, by any wilful act causes the child to die before it has an existence independent of its mother, shall be guilty of child destruction and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.

(2) A person shall be guilty of an offence under this section unless it is proved that the act which caused the death of the child was not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life of the mother.

(3) For the purpose of this section, evidence that a woman had at any material time been pregnant for a period of twenty-eight weeks or more shall be prima facie proof that she was at the time pregnant of a child capable of being born alive.

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230.  Responsibility as to surgical operation

A person is not criminally responsible for performing, in good faith and with reasonable care and skill, a surgical operation upon any person for his benefit, or upon an unborn child for the preservation of the mother’s life if the performance of the operation is reasonable, having regard to the patient’s state at the time and to all the circumstances of the case.