Skip to content
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Pro Bono Program
    • Creative Council
    • Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
    • Global Advocacy
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Make a Gift Now
    • Be a Champion
    • Join the Advocates Council
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Give Through Your Donor-Advised Fund
    • Make a Gift In Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Leave a Legacy
    • More Ways to Give
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Donate
icon-hamburger icon-magnifying-glass Donate
icon-magnifying-glass-teal

Road to Reform in Rwanda

Center for Reproductive Rights - Center for Reproductive Rights - search logo
search Close Close icon
Center for Reproductive Rights -
Menu Close Menu Close icon
Donate

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Pro Bono Program
    • Creative Council
    • Annual Reports
    • Contact Us
    • Careers
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
    • Global Advocacy
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Events
    • Press Releases
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Make a Gift Now
    • Be a Champion
    • Join the Advocates Council
    • Become a Major Donor
    • Give Through Your Donor-Advised Fund
    • Make a Gift In Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Leave a Legacy
    • More Ways to Give
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Related Content

Issues:

Abortion, Legal Restrictions

Regions:

Africa

Work:

Reporting on Rights

Type:

News, Story

Follow the Center

Donate Now

Join Now

07.10.2012

Reporting on Rights Abortion Africa News

Road to Reform in Rwanda

Justin Goldberg

Share this Story

  • facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • Email id
Road to Reform in Rwanda

Anne wanted only to get the education that would be the path to a better life. Instead she wound up in a prison in Rwanda, where women have for years been victims of extreme abortion laws.



Today, Rwanda stands on the brink of transformation, and its women poised to reclaim a measure of the equality and dignity lost to discrimination. The country’s legislature has, to an extent, removed criminal penalties for abortion in the case of rape, incest, forced marriage, and to preserve the life or health of a woman. The Center joined Rwandan advocates in calling on President Paul Kagame to sign the revised penal code into law. We tempered our praise for the new legislation, though, with concerns about some of the legislation’s limitations, urging the government to think of this as only a first step toward total reform.



Anne’s story demonstrates the oppression Rwandan women live under as well as the extreme culture of hostility that they face every day. She was only 17 when she faced a horrifying choice: She could get the books and education materials to continue her studies as long as she was willing to have sex with the teacher that controlled access to them.



Anne chose her education, despite what she’d have to endure to get it. Like many Rwandan girls and young women, she had little in the way of schooling on sexuality and pregnancy prevention. She didn’t understand contraception and quickly became pregnant, which led to her getting expelled from school. She opted to have an abortion. When her brother found out, he reported his own sister to the police. (It is, in fact, quite common in Rwanda for family members to report relatives to the police for abortion.) Today, she’s in the middle of a nine-year prison sentence.



It’s too soon to say whether the new criminal code will affect Anne. The revised code does nothing to address the situation of women and girls already in prison. And some criminal penalties remain for obtaining an abortion or providing the service. And the revised code still doesn’t make it easy to obtain an exception as it requires women to prove how they became pregnant. Women have to get a court to certify that the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest, or forced marriage. This can take too much time and require too much money, especially in a situation when time is of the essence.



A second provision further dims the impact of this otherwise important legislation. These newly  legal abortions must be performed by a medical doctor, with written consent from another doctor, even though it is common practice for nurses and clinic officers to safely provide first-trimester abortions. Requiring consultation from an additional doctor can result in serious delays for women who need a procedure in a timely manner. ,



Radical transformations are rare in the reproductive rights arena. As much as we want all women to exercise total reproductive autonomy today, we take every incremental change, like this one in Rwanda, and immediately seek out ways to build on it. It will be a great day for Rwandan women if President Kagame signs the new penal code into law, but it will only be the start. Women should never end up in handcuffs because they envision a different, better kind of life. The Center is already building the case to make that a reality.


Related Posts

The Human Rights Committee Urges Malawi to Safeguard Sexual and Reproductive Rights

In July 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (the Committee), which monitors states’ implementation of the International Covenant on...

Abortion, Legal Protections, Legal Restrictions, Other Barriers, Adolescent SRHR, Contraception, Emergency Contraception, Legal Protections, Legal Restrictions, Maternal Health, Access to Quality Care,Africa, Malawi, Latin America & Caribbean, Peru, Accountability Bodies, United Nations,At the United Nations, Reporting on Rights

The World’s Abortion Laws Map (2014)

Since 1998, the Center for Reproductive Rights has produced The World’s Abortion Laws map to visually compare the legal status of induced abortion...

Abortion, Legal Protections, Legal Restrictions,Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, United States,Reporting on Rights

Reproductive Rights Violations as Torture

Far too often, women suffer violations of their reproductive rights that inflict tremendous physical and psychological pain. They may be...

Abortion, Anti-Choice Harassment, Maternal Health,Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & Caribbean, United States,Engaging Policymakers, Around the World, Reporting on Rights

Sign up for email updates.

The most up-to-date news on reproductive rights, delivered straight to you.

Footer Menu

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

Center for Reproductive Rights
© (1992-2022)

Use of this site signifies agreement with our disclaimer and privacy policy.

Center for Reproductive Rights
This site uses necessary, analytics and social media cookies to improve your experience and deliver targeted advertising. Click "Options" or click here to learn more and customize your cookie settings, otherwise please click "Accept" to proceed.
OPTIONSACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-6619340-11 minuteNo description
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_parsely_session30 minutesThis cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
HotJar: _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjFirstSeen30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjid1 yearThis cookie is set by Hotjar. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
HotJar: _hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjTLDTestsessionNo description
SSCVER1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for online advertising by creating user profile based on their preferences.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IMRID1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
personalization_id2 yearsThis cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting.
TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
adEdition1 dayNo description
akaas_MSNBC10 daysNo description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others1 yearNo description
geoEdition1 dayNo description
next-i18next1 yearNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo
Scroll Up