She wakes up at 3am every morning, walks 10km to and from school every day and goes home to nothing but a slice of bread and a glass of barely drinkable water which accounts for her daily diet. This is her reality. So of course when Bontle gets a full scholarship for varsity covering her tuition and living expenses she is elated and can’t wait to go out and celebrate with her friends at the nearest teen hot spot. But alas, she wakes up in a ditch the night after what was supposed to be a celebratory outing and quickly comes to the realization that she’s been raped as her clothes are tattered and there is blood streaking down her thighs. Weeks later, she discovers the formidable truth; she is pregnant.
Now look at Thato, a privileged young girl who’s attended the finest schools and eaten even finer food. It’s yet another Friday night and she’s going clubbing. Hers is not a sad tale. She’s been sipping on juice and soda so her judgement is not impaired. She likes the life of promiscuity. And she’s been very careful so far. So imagine the horror, when she discovers that not long after another one of her escapades or rather ‘sexcapades’, she has fallen pregnant.
Swollen feet, constant nausea, back aches and a bulging tummy. These are just some of the things we are told to expect during pregnancy as females. But what if we fall pregnant and decide we don’t want to go through this seemingly horrid experience? Especially in the aftermath of an appalling incident like that of Bontle? Or when we’ve been careless, to say the least like Thato?
Over the years I’ve had a few friends fall pregnant. Mind you, I’m fresh out of high school and so are they (Well, the ones that actually managed to finish high school). Each and every one of them fell pregnant under different circumstances, like the females I used in my illustrations. One thing they all have in common though, is that they all contemplated having an abortion seeing as at one point or the other “I know of a Sangoma who can take care of that for just peanuts” or “Just go to the town doctor. He’ll remove it and you’ll be as good as new”, are some of the things their malleable and acquiescent friends preached to them day in, day out.
Who is to say rape victims are more privileged in making the decision of whether or not to have an abortion? Why is it more acceptable for them to go through with it than for the neighboured floozy? Especially when they are financially and socially disadvantaged?
The society we live in has too many double standards. Most of our society will agree for Bontle to have an abortion because in not doing so she loses any hope for a good future but frown upon Thato’s decision because they would deem her as having been stupid and irresponsible. I for one think every female regardless of how she came to be pregnant has the right to decide whether they want to get rid of the problem, if they do see it as a problem, which is their unwanted child. Mind you, I am not saying I am all up for abortion, I am all up for the right females have to decide what they want to do in such cases of unplanned pregnancy. Of course living in a country like Botswana where abortion is illegal we cannot freely exercise this right but it is a right we have nonetheless.
By;
Realeboga Lewanika
