‘I’ve seen women suffer’: Malawi’s religious leaders fight for legal abortions

Throughout his ministry, the Rev Cliff Nyekanyeka has led funeral services for women who died after an illegal abortion in Malawi. He has visited hospitals where doctors have shown him the aftereffects of such procedures, including pictures of what he describes as “rotting uteruses”. And he has seen women struggling with unwanted pregnancies.

It is this lived experience that has led Nyekanyeka to advocate for a woman’s right to choose, and to campaign for change in a country with one of the world’s strictest abortion laws. In Malawi, women seeking an abortion can be imprisoned for up to seven years and anyone administering an abortion to a woman could face 14 years in prison; it is permitted only to save a woman’s life. The law was introduced by the British under colonial rule.

“I’ve seen women struggling; I’ve seen them suffering and I feel for them,” he says. “I am pro-choice because I’ve seen what it means [not to be], and I think I have to contribute to the movement.”

The Rev Cliff Nyekanyeka says that having seen the effects of the colonial-era abortion laws, ‘I am pro-choice.’ Photograph: Handout

Nyekanyeka, 45, coordinates the Religious Leaders Network for Choice, a group formed in 2019 with about 15 members and which now numbers more than 1,000 Christians and Muslims.

They first came together after attending training sessions run by the Coalition for Prevention of Unsafe Abortion, which educates the public on unsafe abortion and builds grassroots momentum for law reform. The network conducts research into the intersection of religion and sexual and reproductive health and rights; and advocates for access to safe abortion to policymakers, lawyers, judges, the media and MPs.

Despite the law, tens of thousands of women have abortions each year in Malawi. Research by the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for sexual and reproductive health, and the University of Malawi College of Medicine, published in 2017 – the latest date for which figures are available – estimated that 141,000 women in Malawi had an abortion in 2015, and that 60% of these resulted in complications that required treatment.

Unsafe abortion is among the top five direct causes of maternal mortality in the country, contributing up to 18% of maternal deaths.

The reality of women dying from unsafe abortions has pushed the network and civil society organisations to advocate for legislative reform. A bill to liberalise Malawi’s abortion laws was proposed in 2016 but never made it to parliament because of strong opposition. The termination of pregnancy bill would allow abortions when a woman’s mental or physical health was in danger, as well as in cases of rape, incest or serious foetal abnormalities.

In 2021, the bill made it a step further when it was proposed in parliament by the MP Matthews Ngwale. After strong opposition, it was never discussed and was later withdrawn. At the time, Henry Saindi, secretary general of the Episcopal Conference, said: “It is only God who can give or take life irrespective of whatever circumstance that has happened. Human life remains sacred and it must be preserved, promoted and defended. The bill does not reflect our values, our culture and our aspirations as a nation.”

That the bill made it to parliament was “a very big milestone” and down to the influence of some religious leaders advocating for wider access to abortion, says Simeon Thodi, advocacy manager at MSI Malawi, a non-profit provider of sexual and reproductive health services.

A shantytown shop in Blantyre, Malawi’s second city. Public opinion on women’s rights is shifting, despite misinformation from foreign-funded anti-abortion groups. Photograph: AFP/Getty

“Religious leaders’ engagement with members of parliament is what led to the bill appearing in parliament for the first time,” he says. “That is how effective they are.”

Religious leaders wield huge influence in Malawi where, according to the most recent census in 2018, 77% of the population identifies as Christian and almost 14% is Muslim.

Nyatuwe Emma Phiri, of Malawi’s Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, has seen this in action. When she goes to communities to advocate for sexual health and reproductive rights, people are less inclined to listen to her.

She says: “It’s like, ‘Oh no, these are the gender guides, the ones who want us to talk about men sleeping with other men. We don’t want to hear about it.’ So it’s a shutdown, an immediate shutdown.”

But if a religious leader turns up to speak, says Phiri, people tend to listen. “They know that this person has some sort of authority to what they are saying and it is not coming from a lack of knowledge,” she says. “They have studied these things extensively, they have the data, and they’ve experienced it.” Women often confide in, and seek advice from, religious leaders, she adds.

Despite recent inroads made in shifting opinion among Malawians, strong opposition to abortion persists. Nyekanyeka says some anti-abortion organisations spreading misinformation are heavily funded by US and UK groups. “They say, ‘this is not your phenomenon in Africa. You don’t need abortions because this is a western thing’,” he says. “But these people who are dying here in Malawi are Malawians.”

Some members of the network have to remain anonymous because their beliefs go against those of their church, he adds.

But the impact of the network is undeniable. “We have seen young people go to their MP and ask them to discuss abortion,” says Nyekanyeka. “We have seen a number of organisations issue press statements. We have seen people who are aware of what we are talking about.

“We have a mass movement that can explain the bill, check misinformation, bring out facts and contribute to the advocacy [for access to abortion].”