LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — She says she’s been disappointed every step of the way. By a partner who left her while she was pregnant. by a health service that denied her a legal abortion. And by a justice system that sent her to a maximum security prison for illegally terminating her own pregnancy.
Violet Zulu, a house cleaner in Zambia earning $40 a month, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024 after representing herself in court with little understanding of the consequences of her actions. She has not seen her two children or other family members for nearly two years.
Zulu, who helped him file an appeal, was released last month after word of his case reached international rights groups. Activists say she represents the many women in Africa who make desperate decisions when faced with barriers to legal abortion services.
Her story has found little sympathy in her southern African nation, where sections of society view abortion harshly. Her own mother said she agreed with her daughter’s prison sentence, but it should have been shorter.
Zulu spoke to The Associated Press when he was 26 when his life fell apart again.
Get away from care
She said she first tried to access legal abortion services at a public clinic, which was supposed to offer advice or services, but she was turned away. She then tried a private pharmacy, which requested 800 Zambian kwacha ($43) for abortion medication, a month’s salary for her.
She was already struggling to feed her two young sons, and sometimes had to beg for food from relatives.
She said her decision to drink the herbal concoction she prepared herself was taken out of desperation. If she had another child, she could not bear to feed her boys less.
“I never wanted to have my abortion, but the situation at home forced me to do it,” Zulu said in an interview in the two-room rented house without running water that she shares with her children and parents.
“I was scared (when I took the concoction), but I didn’t care what would happen to me,” she added.
In her court testimony, she described what happened next: She gave birth to the fetus in a toilet, put it in a sack and threw it into a nearby river. She said she talked to a friend, but word got out and neighbors reported it to the police.
Zulu, who dropped out of school in the eighth grade, was not given free legal advice even though he had the right to request it. She represented herself in court and pleaded guilty to the crime of her own abortion. She said she did not understand the legality of abortion and that she would receive a warning.
failed system
“It’s a system that failed Violet,” said Rosemary Kirui, legal counsel for the abortion rights group Center for Reproductive Rights in Africa, which campaigned for Zulu’s release and helped with her appeal. “It’s not that she didn’t try. It’s that she can’t afford the services, yet she should be able to access them as a Zambian citizen.”
Sharon Williams, country director for women and law at the Southern Africa Advocacy Group, said Zulu should qualify for free abortions under a provision that allows Zambian doctors to consider risks to the well-being of their existing children.
But Zulu didn’t know about that, largely because of the secrecy, stigma and shame surrounding abortion, not advertised by Zambia’s public health system.
Zambia’s Ministry of Health did not respond to questions about her case.
Part of the problem, Williams said, is that Zambia has legalized abortion and defined itself in its constitution as a staunchly Christian country.
Abortion is still largely restricted in Africa, with few countries allowing it for reasons other than a threat to the health of the mother or fetus. Even in countries like Zambia, religious beliefs, conservative values embedded in local cultures or a lack of information make accessing legal processes difficult, according to health and rights groups.
Williams said Zulu’s case should lead to a national conversation about whether Zambian authorities should better educate communities on the legal right to abortion.
“I think now that we have this decision, we’re ready to negotiate,” she said.
Desperate women, unsafe abortions
Activists say desperate women have unsafe abortions. Africa and Latin America have the highest proportion of them, with about 75% of all abortions in Africa considered unsafe, according to the World Health Organization.
The Guttmacher Institute health rights organization estimated in a 2019 report that more than 6 million unsafe abortions occur a year in sub-Saharan Africa. It noted that Zambia’s abortion law “is a ‘paper law’ rather than a law that ensures wide access.”
Abortion has been legal for nearly 30 years in South Africa, which claims to have the most progressive laws on the continent. It is allowed on request for several reasons before 13 weeks and before 21 weeks of pregnancy.
But studies estimate that only 7% of public health facilities there provide abortion services.
In 2023, the case of a 14-year-old girl who was denied three abortions by South African health workers because they were not valid prompted a national reality check. After an urgent court case, a judge ordered the girl to be allowed to have an abortion, which was eligible by law on the last day.
At the time, a representative of a social justice group representing KT said South Africa’s abortion laws were trying to prevent abortions due to “misuse of medical knowledge by healthcare professionals”.
In Zambia, Zulu said she still felt bad about what she had done but now had to provide for her sons. He was looking for work again, she said.
___
Imre reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
___
For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse
The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with charities, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
