Dear team,

For the past few years, I've been working on an important reproductive rights case in Kenya with the Center for Reproductive Rights. In our case, Republic v. Samson Mwita and Grace Wanjiku, a health care provider and a mother were being treated as criminals for protecting the rights of an adolescent girl who, without access to abortion care, faced health complications—a grave violation of her human rights and bodily autonomy.

In a huge win five years in the making, the health care provider and the mother in this case have been cleared of the charges of procuring an abortion by a Magistrate's court in Makadara, Kenya.

Back in 2018, police stormed a Kenyan clinic where an adolescent girl was being treated by a health care provider for pregnancy-related complications following a sexual assault. They arrested and detained both the health provider and the girl's mother on charges of procuring abortion care, even though, as a minor survivor of sexual assault, the girl was legally eligible to access abortion under Kenyan and international law at the time. Under the charges, the provider and the mother faced up to 14 years of imprisonment.

Forcing someone to carry a pregnancy has life-long implications for their ability to pursue educational and economic opportunities. All of us, no matter where we live, should be able to make the decisions that impact our lives and futures, free from criminalization.

The dismissal of the case aligns with earlier court rulings in Kenya declaring that it is illegal to arrest and prosecute abortion patients and providers. The dismissal also sends a clear message affirming abortion as a health care right.

This is just one of many cases that the Center has litigated to defend the rights of women and girls to access—and the rights of clinicians to provide—abortion care.

You can learn more about abortion laws in Kenya and in countries all around the world by using our World Abortion Laws Map. I'm proud to be part of the Center's global work to hold governments accountable to their legal commitments in domestic and international law, to ensure that people can access the reproductive care they need and to which they are legally entitled.

I do this work because no mother or health care provider should be treated as criminals for protecting the rights of an adolescent. We are committed to the fight for reproductive rights around the globe and we couldn't do this work without your support.

In solidarity,

Martin Onyango
Associate Director of Africa Legal Strategies