By Daniel Chigundu
Miriam Mlambo, a 15-year-old, was in Form Two and aspired to become a doctor. To achieve this, she needed to complete her secondary education and then attend university to study medicine.
However, Miriam was unfortunate. She became pregnant from her first sexual encounter with her high school boyfriend. They could not access condoms for prevention because the age of consent to SRHR service in Zimbabwe does not permit it
Her parents were devastated. They attempted to take her to the boy’s family, but she was rejected. The boy denied responsibility, alleging she had many boyfriends.
To cover their shame and that of her other siblings still attending school, they decided she should stay home and perform daily chores. With this decision, her dream of becoming a doctor began to fade with each passing day.
But Miriam is not alone; she is one of thousands of underage girls who dropped out of school in 2024 because of pregnancy. According to the Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Angeline Gata, approximately 3,433 primary and secondary school girls dropped out due to pregnancies in 2024 alone.
“So, the total number of girls who dropped out in primary school due to pregnancy is 109. The total number of girls who dropped out in secondary schools due to pregnancy is 3,324,” she told Parliament during a Question and Answer session.
In Zimbabwe, education is very important as it opens doors to opportunities. For example, primary education is a prerequisite for secondary education, and secondary education, in turn, is essential for tertiary education, where individuals choose their career paths.
When 3,433 girls drop out of primary and secondary education, it means they lose the opportunity to decide their career paths in life. This limits their chances of achieving a standard or good quality of life.
To make matters worse, because they are pregnant and under 18, they are legally forbidden from marrying, meaning they will become single mothers. This is not to say there is anything inherently wrong with being a single mother.
However, Zimbabwean society often looks down upon single mothers. They are frequently perceived as having loose morals and are subjected to derogatory terms such as “M1.” which is a short form for ‘’mother of one’’
Most of these single mothers struggle to get married because society frowns upon those who marry single mothers, and most parents do not approve of their sons marrying them, unless the prospective partners are also divorcees or widowers.
A recent movie by Tyler Perry titled STRAW highlights some of the challenges faced by single mothers around the world.
These scenarios could be what awaits the 3,433 girls who dropped out of primary and secondary school due to pregnancies. And consider this: how many girls have been forced into these situations in the past decade in Zimbabwe?
Could this not be the reason why there are few women in decision-making positions in both business and politics, despite concerted efforts by civic society organizations and even the government through the Zimbabwe Gender Commission?
Imagine if one of those girls was destined to become a scientist who would discover the cure for cancer, HIV, or any other currently incurable disease, but dropped out of school.
Who knows, perhaps among them there was one destined to become a great leader who would bring solutions to the country’s economic and social challenges, but again, she didn’t attend school because she became pregnant.
However, it is not as if there is no known solution that could help prevent this. It is simply an issue of mindsets that are chained to primitive cultures, and mindsets colonized by religion—and mindsets that only look at one side while ignoring the other.
The solution to teens dropping out of school because of pregnancies is simply allowing them access to sexual reproductive health products and services. But again, cultural and religious values have led the country to reject this move.
In the absence of access to sexual reproductive health products, the only other option on the table is to allow safe abortion for girls who become pregnant before they turn 18, which is the legal age of consent to sex in Zimbabwe.
Safe abortion is performed by trained health practitioners in a designated health facility. This ensures there are no complications, harm or death to the girl.
The High Court of Zimbabwe has already set the tone for this through its 2024 ruling in the case of Women in Law in Southern Africa & Talent Forget v Minister of Health and Child Care, Parliament of Zimbabwe & Attorney General of Zimbabwe, when it concluded that the country’s existing legal prohibitions on abortion services violated constitutional rights for girls under the age of 18. FULL JUDGEMENT HERE
Currently, the Termination of Pregnancy Act (1977) strictly regulates abortion, allowing it only under limited conditions, such as when the pregnancy threatens the pregnant woman’s life, there are severe fetal anomalies, or it is a result of unlawful sexual intercourse further defined as incest or rape (excluding marital rape).
It does not provide for access to abortion by underage girls (those under 18 years, who cannot consent to sex) or to married women subjected to sexual violence by their spouses (marital rape), though the latter is a subject for another day.
But what is abortion in the first place? Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy that is below 20 weeks. At this stage, experts say the fetus is not yet fully developed, so the issue of murder or “pro-life” does not stand here. No one is being murdered.
However, some elected officials, like Senator Prisca Mupfumira, are sternly against allowing abortion, even for underage girls who become pregnant. She states that her views against abortion are informed by her being a woman, a mother, a grandmother, and a legislator.
She told the Senate while debating a motion to legalise termination of pregnancy, (Hansard) that “I rise today not just as a legislator but as a woman, a mother, a grandmother, and as a representative of millions of Zimbabwean women and families who hold sacred the values of life, family, faith, and community.
“As we gather to deliberate on the proposal to legalise or liberalise abortion in Zimbabwe, we must be guided by the foundational principles of our nation: our Constitution, our culture, our faith, and collective morality. This debate strikes at the very heart of who we are as a people.
“To even find ourselves discussing at what point it is acceptable to terminate life is in itself deeply troubling. It feels alien to our identity as Africans, as Zimbabweans, to value life from its very beginning on the right to life.
“Mr. President, our starting point is clear. Section 48 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe guarantees the right to life. It makes no distinction between the born and the unborn. If we, as lawmakers, have sworn to uphold the Constitution, we must equally protect the life of the child in the womb, the unborn child – mwana anokosha,” she said.
Senator Mupfumira is pretending to be ignorant of the reality that is happening on the ground: these pregnant teens, who are being denied access to sexual reproductive health products and the option of safe abortion, end up engaging in unsafe abortions, which have resulted in many deaths or complications.
Unsafe abortions actually incur a huge cost to the country’s health sector in terms of post-abortion care when girls have engaged in unsafe abortions, conducted by untrained people, and in backyard labs.
So, whether Honourable Mupfumira likes it or not, death is occurring one way or another. The difference is that in the case of Honourable Mupfumira, we are valuing the life of a fetus that is not yet developed at the expense of the life of the girl child.
The senator believes that “enabling termination of pregnancy as a solution to social problems risks turning our health institutions into centers of death rather than life.
‘’We acknowledge that criminalization alone does not deter unsafe abortions, but the answer lies not in legalizing abortion but in addressing the root causes: lack of education, poverty, sexual violence, and weak support systems,” she said.
Senator Mupfumira should answer this: which one is pro-life—saving a fetus that is yet to fully develop, or saving an underage girl who became pregnant, is at risk because her body is not ready to bear a child, and might turn to backyard abortion labs where they use anything from herbs, hangers, and other unorthodox methods?
Sadly, Mupfumira sees nothing wrong with this and thinks legalising abortion risks eroding our values, traditions, and identity as Africans. She prefers to save traditional values at the expense of giving girls a chance in life and says she is a pro-life activist, a mother, and a grandmother.
The “pro-life” version that Mupfumira represents or talks about is not at all pro-life or pro-women. Her “pro-life” is against girls, and it is certainly against women, as it takes away their right to choose and their right to a chance of becoming someone in life.
Put simply, Honourable Mupfumira and those senators who hold the same views as her are happy to see young girls dropping out of school. They are happy to see young girls turning to backyard abortion labs. They are happy to derail women’s empowerment initiatives in the name of safeguarding cultural values, tradition, and religion.
At least it’s not all gloom and doom in the Senate, as some legislators, such as Senator Chinyanga and Senator Mlotshwa, think otherwise and have urged Parliament to urgently review the Termination of Pregnancy Act to address its discriminatory provisions and align it with international best practices.
Senator Mlotshwa acknowledged “in our constituencies, young girls become sexually active before they attain the age of 18 years…” and that “these young girls are getting pregnant either as a result of forced sexual intercourse or within the Romeo and Juliet scenario with their young boyfriends.
“…It is not a secret. Technology has exposed them to these things, and it is happening no matter how we want to deny it. However, these young girls are not allowed to access contraceptives and end up getting pregnant.
“I will tell you as a rural MP that in most rural areas, most girls do not reach the age of 18 before they become pregnant…we are busy trying to empower the girl child and boosting our Constitution to provide equal opportunities for men and women. We are busy citing Section 80, but meanwhile, over 4,500 girls are dropping out of school and have joined the vicious cycle of poverty,” she said.
The Senator’s debate is sound, as it highlights the gaps in the laws and their resulting effects, and she goes on to propose changes to address these gaps. If anything, she spoke like a mother, a woman and a grandmother, unlike Senator Mupfumira.
“Mr. President, my heart bleeds in that the second group of girls, where there was consensual sex with their age mates, that is not considered as rape. Our law is therefore clear that termination of pregnancy is not permissible in their circumstances. This means that a girl who wants to terminate ends up going for concoctions, hangers, and needles and will lose her life through backstreet terminations.
“Mr. President, Honourable Members, I support the motion mainly focusing on girls below 18. Our law has excluded them. They should be included in the permissible grounds.
“…I propose, Mr. President, Honourable Members, that we review the Termination of Pregnancy Act, specifically to address the following: that we repeal Sections 5 to 8 of the Act and the regulations that ensure we do away with rape for termination. We should do away with the requirement of approval by two doctors and approval by the superintendent.
“Secondly, introduce a one-stop shop where victims of sexual abuse report their matter and are urgently assisted in obtaining an order of termination of pregnancy.
“Thirdly, introduce timelines, for example, that the order of termination and the termination process must be completed within four weeks of the report. Lastly, the definition of unlawful sexual intercourse includes sexual intercourse with a minor.
“So, this loss of life that we are talking about, remember that we are losing our children because whether we amend the Act or we review the Act, abortions are still happening. Over 66,000 illegal abortions happen every year in this country. Let us think of our children. Let us think of their future.
“When your 12-year-old is raped, her getting a termination must be swift. She deserves it. She is a young girl. She did not ask to be raped,” she said.
However, the Amendment Bill will likely face challenges if it comes to the Senate as the Deputy President of the Chiefs Council, Senator Fortune Charumbira, said he is against the issue of abortion and indicated that he is going to oppose it, even when the bill is brought before Parliament.
“Firstly, let me say that we do not want this issue. We do not want to hear about this, and that is why I stood up. I wanted really to stand up to discuss this; it is very un-African.
“Let me say that when we bring this Bill, Senators, we are going to stand up. We are going to oppose it so that it fails. We cannot allow abortion, and I know international laws. I know that abortion is allowed in other countries and in other circumstances.
“I am saying that if such a Bill were to be brought into the august House for amendment, then we are going to stand and oppose that Bill. Please think twice before bringing such a Bill to this august House; we will be against that. They will really see that this is an issue that affects our culture,” he said.
Senator Charumbira’s remarks puts Zimbabwe at a crossroads. It’s a fact that underage children are engaging in sexual activities, but Zimbabwe does not allow them access to sexual reproductive health products to prevent pregnancies.
When they get pregnant, they cannot abort, and they cannot marry because they are underage. Most of them cannot continue with education, even though the law allows them to return. This was confirmed by the Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in Parliament.
The logical conclusion to this matter is either to allow these underage children access to sexual reproductive health products so that they prevent pregnancies, or to allow them access to safe abortion.
3,433 Pregnant Teens Drop Out of School: Should Zimbabwe Continue Shunning Abortion?
