Abortion is banned in Indonesia except for some medical cases, to save a mother’s life. Despite this tough law, many unmarried women get pregnant and go for illegal abortion by doctor, using herbal remedies and vigorous massage. They could not reach to professional medical gynecologists because abortion is only permitted to save a mother’s life and not to terminate unwanted pregnancy. Currently, a doctor can face up to 15 years in prison for performing an abortion and a woman wanting a termination, up to 4 years.
In some failed abortion cases, the fetus could not be terminated successfully and pregnancy survived and grew in the uterus. These babies had born with mental and physical disability like hydrocephalus - a condition causing spinal fluid to swell patient’s brain. These children, living in orphanage had been left by their parents.
According to the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) — the main clerical body in Indonesia — rape victims are permitted to have an abortion up to the 40th day of the pregnancy. But, women who have become pregnant through an adulterous affair are not allowed to have an abortion, because most of them become pregnant by free will.
The ignorance about sex, contraceptive methods, rigid social traditions are also responsible for these thousands of abortions carried out in poorly equipped clinics each year. It would not be wrong to say, the cases of failed abortions had created long term painful consequences for the children born disable. God bless them!
