JAKARTA: As more and more Indonesian women head underground for abortions, women's rights and healthcare activists in the country have urged the government to rethink the current anti-abortion laws on the books. Groups in the country have said that they are seeing an increasing number of women use unsanitary or illegal methods that put their health and safety at risk in order to obtain an abortion. Groups in the country also say that the health ministry's refusal to boost sexual education and family planning is also to blame. Inna Hudaya, the founder of SAMSARA, an NGO that provides assistance to women with unplanned pregnancies, told the Jakarta Globe that criminalized abortion is “a threat” to public health, and women, in general. “The criminalization of abortion is a form of violence against women. State and society have failed to see women as subjects; women are increasingly seen as objects and are subordinated under the law," she said. According to SAMSARA statistics, Indonesia sees approximately 2.5 million abortions annually, and most of those occur in rundown clinics outside government oversight where sanitary conditions are poor at best. Hudaya argued that abortion is ironically higher in countries that do not have adequate sexual education, family planning and where abortion is illegal, such as Indonesia. “Even though abortion is criminalized, there has been no significant change in the abortion rate. As long as there are no efforts to reduce the incidence of unplanned pregnancies, the demand for abortion services will remain high," she added. Some doctors, however, told Bikyamasr.com that they refuse to comply with the government's anti-abortion stance, especially in Jakarta. One doctor, who runs a private clinic in the city, said that she has performed at least 20 abortions in the past year for women. “Most of the girls are under 20 and if they had a child they would face so many hardships, so I give them the assistance so they can still have their lives after making a mistake,” she said. How she manages to keep the government off her back is easy, she argued. “Most inspectors don't understand what is involved and now that it is an easy procedure, I just make sure they are listed as check-ups or even a cyst so the women can still receive some insurance if they don't have money.” While the doctor may be an outlier, she said more and more colleagues see the importance of not forcing young girls to have children when they are not able to. “It just doesn't make sense to force them into back streets or people who don't know what they are doing,” the doctor said, adding that “as a medical professional, I should always put the patient first, no matter what the government believes.” It's not just in Indonesia that abortion is a concern. Across the region, the US National Institute of Health reports that “unsafe abortion represent 14-16 percent of all maternal deaths in Southeast Asia.” “Preventing unsafe abortion is imperative if Indonesia is to achieve the fifth Millennium Development Goal of improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality. Current Indonesian abortion law is based on a national health bill passed in 1992. Though the language on abortion was vague, it is generally accepted that the law allows abortion only if the woman provides confirmation from a doctor that her pregnancy is life-threatening, a letter of consent from her husband or a family member, a positive pregnancy test result and a statement guaranteeing that she will practice contraception afterwards,” a 2008 report said. Women's groups like SAMSARA are urging the government to mend the 1992 law and give women the freedom to choose what they believe is right for their bodies.
