Ipas has a launched a website for its upcoming documentary, “Not Yet Rain,” due to come out in April. The documentary explores the subject of abortion in Ethiopia through the voices of women who have faced the challenge of trying to access safe abortion care. There’s a trailer on the website you can check out.
From Ipas:
Our goal for this project is to educate U.S. audiences about the unseen epidemic of unsafe abortion – the most preventable cause of maternal mortality. Despite the fact that unsafe abortion claims the lives of nearly 67,000 women and injures millions more each year, the religious and political controversy surrounding abortion has kept this global public health problem relatively hidden. With this film, we hope we can shine a light on what remains a taboo topic, and contribute to a conversation that will help to reveal abortion as a part of the reality of women’s lives around the globe.
The website goes on to mention that, since 2006, Ethiopia has had one of Africa’s most progressive abortion laws, which I did not know. Every day with the learning. I dug around around their website a little more to find this:
[I]n 2004, the Ethiopian Parliament promulgated one of Africa’s most progressive abortion laws. Under the revisions, the new penal code expanded the indications for abortion, adding rape, incest, fetal abnormality and a woman’s physical or mental disabilities. The Parliament also approved abortion for minors who are physically or psychologically unable to care for a child. This is a particularly significant change for Ethiopia, where the Ethiopian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists estimates that 45 percent of those who seek abortions are younger than 18.
I’ll be interested to see, though, how this translates to the average woman’s experience. Having a law on the books certainly doesn’t guarantee meaningful access to abortion care. Like here, it doesn’t address cultural or religious obstacles. But, still a move in the right direction.