The Politicization of Abortion and Hippocratic Disobedience in Islamist Sudan

Author(s): Liv Tønnessen, Samia Al-Nagar

In: Health and Human Rights, Vol 21, No 2, 2019, pp. 7-19

This article explains how abortion is understood within Sudan’s Islamist state, where it is politicized through its association with illegal pregnancy. It also the silent disobedience of Sudanese doctors for the purpose of protecting women’s reproductive rights. While abortion is not discussed in the domestic political debate on women’s reproductive and maternal health, and is not on the agenda of the national women’s movement, it has become politicized in the implementation of the law. A number of bureaucratic barriers, in addition to a strong police presence outside maternity wards in public hospitals, make it difficult for unmarried women to access emergency care after complications of an illegal abortion. However, many doctors, honouring the Hippocratic oath, disobey state policy, and refrain from reporting such ‘crimes’ to the police, to protect unmarried and vulnerable women from prosecution.

Available online at:

https://www.hhrjournal.org/2019/10/the-politicization-of-abortion-and-hippocratic-disobedience-in-islamist-sudan/

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Volume Two -> F. Feminist Movements and Protests -> F.5. New Global Feminist Wave, 2017 onwards -> F.5.a. Women's Rights over their Bodies: Contraception, Abortion, Sterilization -> F.5.a.i. Africa

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