By Leocadia Bongben
Her timely transportation to the Yaounde Central Hospital saved a girl’s life. The story goes like this. A woman remarries a man who poses as a medical professional. Her daughter, who was living with the couple, became pregnant and had to admit to her mother under pressure when she noticed changes. She fled the house when the foster father found out, but she was persuaded to come back a few weeks later.
The mother then pins her daughter down for the so-called doctor to carry out an abortion to terminate the pregnancy. The intestine is ruptured during the procedure. Due to the complication, the girl was taken to Central Hospital and underwent surgery, and the foetus was removed from the abdomen. To preserve her life, the uterus is removed, and a few millimetres of the small intestine are severed, narrated Professor Felix Essibeng, a gynaecologist and focal point of the Access to Comprehensive Abortion Care (ACAC) Project of the Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians of Cameroon (SOGOC).
This is just one of numerous accounts of the reality resulting from complications from clandestine abortions and unintended pregnancies, illustrating the situation in Cameroonian medical facilities. A study by Essiben reveals startling figures. “80% of unqualified individuals perform covert abortions, which affect 70% of young and teenage girls. Clandestine abortions from unintended pregnancies brought on by rape or incest are responsible for one in five maternal deaths. The cost of treating abortion-related problems is roughly ten times higher than that of prevention.”
Besides, the study reveals that 572 occurrences of covert abortions were reported at the Yaounde Central Hospital from 2022 to 2025, with 167 complications and 4 fatalities. The results are from one hospital, and Cameroon has about 58 health districts and other big health facilities.
According to SOGOC, treatment for complications from abortions ranges from 44,000 CFA francs ($80) to 524,000 CFA francs ($1,000).
Essiben states that “a new law is not just a text but will save a life” while discussing the reality in hospitals at the first national multi-stakeholder meeting on reproductive health, which will take place in Yaoundé from May 7 to 8.
Organised by the Ministry of Public Health in collaboration with CAMNAFAW and with technical assistance from ODAS, the meeting brought together key ministries – Health, Justice, and the Promotion of Women and the Family – civil society organisations; feminist networks; and partners – UNFPA, the French Embassy, WHO, Pathfinder, and AmplifyChange – to create a space for ongoing dialogue between the government, civil society, and technical partners.
The meeting was also held within the context of the proposed Reproductive Health (RH) law in alignment with Cameroon’s international commitments, particularly the Maputo Protocol, and document barriers and opportunities to improve access to safe abortion within the current legal framework in Cameroon.
Reproductive health is a matter of public health and dignity. Despite the drop in maternal deaths from 406 to 248 per 100,000 live births, the contraceptive prevalence rate is still limited to approximately 20%; there is an urgent need to reduce preventable maternal deaths, particularly those linked to complications from unsafe abortions.
With these figures, CAMNAFAW has the legitimacy to say that it is important to domesticate the Maputo protocol because there are gaps between what is signed and what obtains in our national context. Against this background, CAMNAFAW in 2024 gathered parliamentarians and senators to chart the way forward, leading to a special session in parliament on the domestication of the Maputo Protocol. Recommendations from parliament are being implemented in different sectors. There was a meeting recently with the Ministry of Justice to accompany them in the revision of the Penal Code to align with the Maputo Protocol.
“The work in progress today is to continue sensitisation, to accompany the Ministry of Health on the elaboration of the law on the health of reproduction, and to ensure the Penal Code aligns with aspects of the Maputo Protocol,” said Guy Martial Mendo Ze, Coordonnateur of the CAMNAFAW project, ‘Ado Avance Ensemble’. To him, the work does not stop with the Maputo Protocol, as many things have changed since 2023. “We are also trying to contextualise and actualise, to insert the registration age and the deadline for the case treatment by the magistrate in the Penal Code,” Mendo Ze explained.
ODAS federating efforts for access to safe abortion care
Kadidiatou Sow, Director of ODAS, an NGO focused on sexual, reproductive, and health rights in Francophone Africa, hailed the sincerity and commitment shown during the meeting. ODAS partners with multiple actors, including institutions, civil society, and feminists, in line with the mandate of access to safe abortion. but also advises financial partners on where to channel funds.
At the end of the forum, “We are going to document the context of sexual and reproductive health rights in Cameroon with rich data from presentations to create a country profile and cartography of ongoing initiatives and the forum report for a clear understanding of the abortion ecosystem with different aspects, such as advocacy, capacity building, legislation, health systems, and youth involvement and the available resources and organisations to identify underfunding areas,” Sow stressed.
Besides, there will be an evaluation of the level of implementation of the Maputo Protocol. “It is not because we have not domesticated the protocol that nothing is done, and we continue to accelerate advocacy for domestication,” ODAS Boss. added
She revealed that there are gaps at the level of coordination and finances, in line with a reflection on looking inward for funding, given the global context of external finances.
ODAS is involved in the framework of strengthening the efforts of the countries on the Maputo Protocol and will be organising a high-level meeting with the decision-makers of 11 countries of the region to discuss the Maputo Protocol with ministers of health, justice, and education.
