Staff Reporter
Kwekwe City Council is conducting a study to establish the factors behind 34 abortions recorded in the city this August, amid concerns raised by councillors over the high number of cases.
The issue was raised during a full council meeting by Finance Committee chairperson Cllr Alex Senge, who called for the local authority to investigate why the cases were occurring.
Responding to the concerns, Kwekwe director of Health Services Dr Munyaradzi said the council was already undertaking research to establish the circumstances surrounding the reported abortions.
He cautioned against assuming that all the cases involved deliberate termination of pregnancies, noting that the term abortion can also refer to spontaneous miscarriage.
“Abortion can mean a natural miscarriage or an artificial miscarriage,” Dr Munyaradzi said.
He said the council was particularly concerned about induced abortions because some people may resort to unsafe methods to terminate pregnancies, while others may have medical reasons for ending a pregnancy.
“The induced ones are the ones that the councillors are worried about, because then people are using various ways to terminate pregnancies. But other people, it’s also okay because of other conditions that they have,” he said.
Dr Munyaradzi said the research would help the council understand the dynamics behind abortion cases in the city and identify other factors that could be contributing to the situation.
“What we are doing is we are conducting a research to try to understand what are the factors that are causing the dynamics of abortion cases within the city, because we are also worried about other causes that might contribute to the issue of abortion,” he said.
He said the findings would inform the council’s response, including strengthening family-planning interventions.
“Family planning is available,” Dr Munyaradzi said.
The council’s investigation comes as councillors seek to understand the factors contributing to reproductive health challenges in the city and determine appropriate interventions.
However, the council did not indicate how many of the 34 cases were spontaneous miscarriages and how many were induced abortions.
Further details from the study are expected to provide a clearer picture of the circumstances surrounding the reported cases.
