Kenya Protects Unborn Babies, Bans Foreign Company From Doing Abortions

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 19, 2018   |   10:53AM   |   Nairobi, Kenya

The international abortion chain Marie Stopes must stop providing abortion services in Kenya, the country’s authorities said last week.

All Africa reports the order came from the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board on Nov. 14 after the abortion group was caught advertising abortions in September. The government board also told Marie Stopes to take down all of its pro-abortion advertisements, including those on its website.

“Marie Stopes Kenya is hereby directed to immediately cease and desist offering any form of abortion services in all its facilities within the republic,” according to the order.

Unborn babies are protected and valued in Kenya. Abortions are prohibited except when the mother’s life is at risk. But Marie Stopes has a long history of promoting abortions and violating basic health and safety regulations.

The Citizen reports more:

Alfred Mutua, who heads the government agency in charge of approving adverts, welcomed the ban before accusing the previous US government of “causing moral decay in Kenya by promoting abortion”.

“Democrats pushed the pro-abortion view and the pro-LGBT stance on us – an agenda that is alien to our own culture,” he said. He further asserted that the adverts run by Marie Stopes were “unprofessional” and made abortion look “cool”.

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Mutua was referring to the Obama administration, which gave tax dollars to Marie Stopes and other pro-abortion groups. President Donald Trump changed that during his first week in office by reinstating a policy that prohibits funding to international groups that promote or provide abortions overseas.

Responding to the order this week, Dana Tilson, a spokesperson for Marie Stopes Kenya, argued that the abortion services they provide are within the law.

“Marie Stopes Kenya offers pregnancy crisis counselling and post-abortion care with the aim of saving the woman and promoting positive health outcomes,” Tilson told All Africa.

The order comes after the Kenya Film and Classification Board banned one of Marie Stopes’ radio advertisements for promoting abortions to teen girls in September.

The abortion chain has been accused of unethical practices in Africa for many years. In 2017, a community in Kitui, Kenya said Marie Stopes workers implanted long-lasting contraceptive devices into girls as young as 14 without their parents’ knowledge or consent. It also has been accused of doing hundreds of dangerous, illegal abortions in Africa.

In England, where Marie Stopes is based, it has a poor safety reputation, having botched nearly 400 abortions in a two-month period in 2017, according to the British Care Quality Commission. In 2016, inspectors found such horrible conditions that the British government temporarily shut down some of the abortion chain’s operations.

The commission also found evidence that Marie Stopes was pressuring women to have abortions by incentivizing staff with bonuses.