A few hours after KOT to the Twitter streets to persuade the Cabinet Secretary for Health Siciliy Kariuki to lift the ban on abortion in the country, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board has finally bowed down to pressure and lifted ban it had imposed on post abortion services offered at Marie Stopes clinics across the country.
https://twitter.com/SicilyKariuki/status/1075743703401152512
In a statement on Thursday, the Health CS Kariuki directed the company to observe all laws that cover its work, as stated in article 26(4) of the Constitution.
The CS further asked Marie Stopes to comply with all directives issued by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, to which it must submit a letter of commitment “that they will not carry out any abortion services on demand”.
In these cases, the procedure must be recommended by a trained health professional. Abortion is also allowed if permitted by any other written law.
Ms Kariuki noted that all health practitioners and institutions must adhere to these regulations.
The management of Marie Stopes Kenya is also expected to write a letter of commitment to the above order within the next seven days, the statement adds.
She added, “I require the [medical board] to carry out regular supervision of the operations of Marie Stopes Kenya and submit corresponding reports to my office”.
The law permits abortions only in the case of emergencies and where the life or health of the woman is in danger.
On November 20, abortion services at Marie Stopes were suspended after the organisation was outed over allegedly performing the procedure on underage girls.
The directives included deactivating the 0800-toll free number and the advertisements during the investigations period, submitting 100 patient files for various facilities for review and suspending all abortion-related services at all its facilities.