By Edinah Masiyiwa
Nokutenda Hwaramba was a 15-year-old girl who recently died at a shrine whilst giving birth. Her life, like that of other pregnant girls giving birth in shrines, was cut short for preventable causes and this angers me so much. One of the reasons given for why girls like Nokutenda did not deliver safely in a health center is “church doctrine,”’ which left them under the care of untrained religious people.
One wonders why such a doctrine is still allowed in Zimbabwe, a country which signed the Maputo Protocol which highlights the need for institution delivery. As a country, we popularized the slogan, “No woman should die while giving birth,” yet we are not following steps to ensure their safety, especially girls’ safety.
According to the Constitution of Zimbabwe Section 76 (1), “Every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has the right to have access to basic health-care services, including reproductive health-care services.”
Public Health Act of 2018 is not particularly explicit, but its Section 35 has been read to provide that children – defined as persons under the age of 18 – require parental or adult consent to access medical health services. Nokutenda’s parents therefore had the responsibility to take her to hospital for delivery, but they chose to take her to a church shrine.
I was really disturbed to hear the arguments put forward by some members of the Apostolic sect about why delivery should happen at shrines instead of hospitals during a survey carried by UNICEF. Their responses included, “People are just like animals. Animals can give birth without any assistance. So, this issue of specialist medical personnel is not necessary. Birth is a natural process,” and, “Once a pregnant woman goes to the clinic, it shows that one does not have faith in God”.
I could not believe these beliefs exist in the 21st century. Despite these harmful beliefs, some parents still bring their pregnant daughters to these leaders instead of to hospitals and their daughters suffer — and even die — as a result.
Additionally, Nokutenda should have had access to termination of pregnancy since a man had unlawful sexual intercourse with her, a minor, which is one of the reasons allowed under the Termination of Pregnancy Act (TOP) (1977). The constitutional court recently put the age of consent to sex at 18 years. It is not surprising that her parents might not be aware of the provisions of this law because it is shrouded under morality and talking about abortion is seen as taboo. However, termination of the pregnancy could have saved Nokutenda’s life as it would have been done safely under the supervision of medical practitioners.
Despite the legal framework that outlaws having sex before 18 years, Multiple Indicator Survey (2019) revealed that 4.6% of girls had sex before 15 years of age. When I look at the legal framework it is clear that there is a will to protect young girls, but the practice is a different story.
Young girls are not protected at all and this needs to change.
Firstly, we need to ensure implementation of the laws and policies that can protect young girls. Indeed, I have had the opportunity of visiting waiting mother’s shelters in Zimbabwe and most of the pregnant “women” are actually adolescents. This is also supported by reports in 2021 where teen pregnancies were on the increase with the government reporting more than 4,000 pregnancies in January and February of that year.
As citizens it is our duty to raise our voices to ensure awareness on laws, such as the TOP, among girls and their families. We need to ensure adolescents have access to sexual and reproductive health services. We might want to deny the fact that adolescents are sexuality active but they are. Let us all work together towards reducing teenage pregnancies.
Secondly churches should not be left to do what they want in opposition to the laws. Right now, it looks like nothing much is being done about this issue by our government. Instead, our political leaders have addressed the members of Apostolic Faith churches with other messages and notably said nothing about this. If our President would give a directive that no woman should deliver in the shrines, I am sure this would go a long way in reducing pregnancy related deaths.
Thirdly, there is need for a targeted intervention such as a mass media campaign that will save people from dying from pregnancy related complications, particularly where access to safe delivery is denied because of religious beliefs.
