Transcript
The Port Moresby Governor, Powes Parkop, says the law has forced abortion underground, endangering the lives of women.
"My personal view is that this is a sensitive issue but we should take it out into the open so we have a public debate on it and make a decision for a way forward into the future."
"Is this something you think the government in PNG might be willing to debate?"
"I hope so. It's just a law the reality is something else. It's not stopping unwanted pregnancy and it's creating an environment where young vulnerable mothers, young girls especially, they're facing greater risk."
The head of obstetrics and gynaecology at PNG's School of Medicine, Glen Mola, says the risks posed by illegal abortion have lessened in recent years, due to the black market trade of the drug misoprostol.
"If you use the misoprostol in very early pregnancy then you're unlikely to bleed to death. But the problem is misoprostol doesn't work so well in very early pregnancy. It's more effective the older the pregnancy, but the older the pregnancy the more likely you are to bleed heavily. So anyone who is going to use misoprostol after ten weeks of pregnancy is very well advised to make sure that they have a taxi fare or a vehicle that can get them to a health facility within the hour."
The director of Bougainville's Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency, Helen Hakena, says the horror of illegal abortion is all too apparent.
"Several times we have seen children or babies floating in our Buka Passage here. Babies are found in the drain, babies are found in the jungles here. There are so many young girls that are becoming pregnant and are taking the matter into their own hands doing abortion illegally. There are times when parents, couples and even the community know who the women are but they don't take them to court."
The family planning NGO Marie Stopes helps women avoid unwanted pregnancy through the distribution of contraception.
Its country director, Maarten van de Reep, says about 30 women die each week in PNG as a result of maternal complications, one of the highest rates in the Asia Pacific region.
He says 13 percent of those deaths are estimated to be caused by illegal abortions.
"As an organisation we don't think that the issue around maternal mortality can be properly addressed without addressing the issue of unsafe abortion. It's also commonly known that providing safe means of abortion does not actually increase the number of abortions that happen in a country. And of course we realise that here is a moral debate that you would have to engage in at a country level, at a policy level, but we do believe that providing safe means of abortion is part of the solution in terms of reducing maternal mortality."
Glen Mola says there's a long history of abortion in tribal society, but a debate on reforming the law must be instigated by law makers.
"If a discussion is going to take place it should come from someone like Powes Parkop or other politicians. If someone like me or feminists try to provoke a discussion then we will be branded as abortionists and immoral persons. Where as if a politician, whose job it is after all to reform the law, if they think it's time to have a discussion, let's go ahead and have a discussion."
Powes Parkop, who's also a member of Parliament, says he thinks abortion should be legalised.
"My preference is that mothers are given choice, they are properly counselled, they are given advice as to the medical and ethical issues. But at the end of the day it should belong to the mother to decide because it's her body, it's her health, she must be given the right to decide to keep or not to keep."
Powes Parkop says after 40 years of independence it's time for serious discussion on abortion to begin in PNG.
This is Ben Robinson Drawbridge.
