Throughout his ministry, the Rev Cliff Nyekanyeka has led funeral services for women who died after an illegal abortion in Malawi. He has visited hospitals where doctors have shown him the aftereffects of such procedures, including pictures of what he describes as “rotting uteruses”. And he has seen women struggling with unwanted pregnancies.
It is this lived experience that has led Nyekanyeka to advocate for a woman’s right to choose, and to campaign for change in a country with one of the world’s strictest abortion laws. In Malawi, women seeking an abortion can be imprisoned for up to seven years and anyone administering an abortion to a woman could face 14 years in prison; it is permitted only to save a woman’s life. The law was introduced by the British under colonial rule.
