a new report in the country suggests
that a Kenyan woman dies every two hours in childbirth
5,500 women die because of
pregnancy related issues and
this is what we're calling maternal mortality ...
Kenya is one of the countries still, with very high maternal mortality
we have five major killers of women
the one that nobody wants to talk about
is unsafe abortion
nobody wants to talk about it, even the relatives
of the young girl that is being buried
they don't want to talk about it
and that's why we say it is a silent killer
the challenges of working in Kenya on
sexual and reproductive health and
rights issues for girls and women are
pretty vast
the root cause is really gender inequality
the idea that women shouldn't have control over their own bodies
if women and girls do not have
access to contraception and sexuality education
the outcomes are unintended
pregnancy and unsafe abortion
Monica Oguttu is a leading advocate in
Kenya for women and girls rights
she founded KMET:
the Kisumu Medical and Education Trust
an organization that focuses on the empowerment of women and girls in western Kenya
where we find the highest rates of
adolescent pregnancy, unsafe abortion
and maternal death, across the country
KMET's approach is
holistic and integrated
they provide sexuality education to
adolescents and communities
they offer a comprehensive package
of sexual and reproductive health services
everything from contraception to HIV screening
to cervical cancer screening, to safe abortion
they also have vocational
skills training, civic participation, and
economic empowerment
not only do they
provide services but they take stories
from the field and utilize those as
advocacy tools to make change at a
policy level
I got into advocacy because
of what I witnessed in the clinical setting
I get this sixteen-year-old
girl who had been admitted with serious
complications of unsafe abortion and she
ended up with total hysterectomy
that is removal of the uterus.
She was
infected and very sick
she looked at me
and asked me "Doctor, where were you?"
some health provider somewhere should have been
there to give her the right information
We are the witnesses. We need to really
talk on behalf of the voiceless
because so many have died.
Abortion is highly
stigmatized in Kenya.
It does take courage and commitment to work on
Monica overcomes these barriers
because
she has built trust over the 20-some years
that KMET has been in existence
The International Women's Health Coalition
and KMET are partners.
We share a vision that girls and women
can fulfill
their dreams, can be active participants
at all levels of society and in order to
do that they need access to sexual and
reproductive health information and
services
most of the local NGOs lack that capacity
to really engage in
sensitive issues especially abortion
IWHC has helped us to really create
networks and penetrate these under-served
communities, reaching the vulnerable
girls and we have developed
comprehensive sexuality education documents
which the Minister of Education has adopted
This is very unique
because initially nobody could go to the schools.
In our advocacy, the International Women's Health Coalition
brings the voices of the women we work
with around the world to policymakers in DC
US policy can have profound impacts
globally.
Chris Matthews: Do you believe in punishment for abortion yes or no, as a principle?
The answer is
that there has to be some form of punishment
Matthews: For the woman?
Yeah.
There has to be some form.
surrounded by men, Donald Trump signs an anti-abortion Executive Order
reinstating a policy that would 
undermine family planning around the world
US law already bans the use of American
taxpayer money for abortion services anywhere
but the Mexico City policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule, takes it even further
It freezes federal funding to NGOs in
poor countries that advocate for abortion
or even just discuss abortion
as an option in family planning.
The Global Gag rule is a US policy that's
put into place by politicians who oppose abortion,
but in fact we've seen it has
exactly the opposite effect
It it leads to an increase in unintended pregnancies, in unsafe abortion, and maternal mortality.
Many organizations, they're facing a
really heartbreaking choice
they have to either forego funding or they have to
limit the services they can provide
Either way, women suffer in those communities.
The Global Gag Rule
it affects everything that we have put in place
it denies the women their right to
access information and services that
they need especially abortion related
women's lives are definitely on the line here
because if KMET loses its funding, women are not going to be able to access services anymore
The International Women's Health Coalition
advocates in support of legislation
 to permanently end the Global Gag Rule.
We launched a
documentation project in collaboration
with partners to really capture the
impacts of this policy on their communities
and we brought the initial findings to the Senate.
So, women are not dying from unsafe abortion    because it cannot be managed, but they are dying
because the society and all these global
laws that also control the Kenyan laws
We have yet to decide that 
women's lives are worth saving.
The time is now
if you want to advance women's rights you can
look at Monica
She started as a nurse
and saw a fundamental problem with
women's health that was killing women
and decided that she was gonna do
something about it and over 20 years
later she made an incredible impact for
women and girls in her country
and she will continue fighting.
As an advocate for girls rights I'm
seeing a future in Kenya where now girls
will be able to make their own choices
they can stand tall and demand their rights.
