Authorities in Botswana have proposed sweeping new restrictions on abortion, and the country’s president says the country’s rule on where women can terminate pregnancies is “unacceptable, inhumane and demeaning”.
The sex workers, prostitutes and welfare agencies in Botswana who are organising the week-long shutdown of sex services across Botswana have complied with the new laws, which include a 5,000 kwacha fine and three months in prison, and an additional fine of 400,000 kwacha if a woman is pregnant while trafficking.
The government insists that banning the sexual exploitation of women and the sex trade has a sustainable solution for poverty.
“There is therefore need to secure a stable and viable economic base for women, youth and the poor,” the ministry of law, justice and gender said in a statement, obtained by BITS, saying that banning sex work is now part of the government’s broader policy agenda.
Excluding minors
“It is our belief that the government should strongly, effectively and proactively address all facets of gendered inequality, including sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS and HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment,” the statement reads.
“Limiting access to abortion and contraception to women, whose circumstances fall within the grounds to which the law applies is a retrograde step and contributes to the unequal treatment of women in our society,” Botswana’s chief medical officer, Dr Ndiya Alfred, said in the statement, which also targeted the country’s rural areas.
“By restricting access to legal, safe abortion services, we are excluding the overwhelming majority of our rural population from this vital service,” Dr Alfred said.
Government: Sex workers putting too much pressure on women and girls
In March, Botswana introduced two new laws to strengthen abortion laws. Under the new law, sex workers will be forced to apply for a work permit and undergo criminal background checks before obtaining one.
Also included in the legislation are rules for age and geographical restrictions, as well as charges for not meeting these conditions.
Sex worker organisation G-Girl Botswana requested a meeting with President Mokgweetsi Masisi on July 10 to discuss the new laws. “It is an insult to us and to the human rights of sexual and reproductive health and rights activists,” G-Girl said in a statement.
“We demand that the president immediately make public a public statement on the effectiveness of the proposed laws and meet with the groups who are leading this mobilization to publicly declare the country as an unwholesome trade zone,” G-Girl’s director, Jacqueline Bokinouwa, said in a statement.
The group said it would no longer organise “any event as a way of protesting this law change” and it would “firmly serve out a period of shut down before continuing to campaign for a dignified country for its citizens, as well as women’s rights to abortion”.
Action against trafficking for sexual servitude
Campaigners will now gather with the Support for Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Network to “re-build strong action” to protect women’s sexual and reproductive health and to “demand a more secure future for women, young people and members of the LGBTI community”.
The government has the power to throw any sex worker in jail under the laws even if they have not been convicted or charged with a crime. Women who are pregnant and traffickers are in “contravention of the provisions of the laws against trafficking for sexual servitude and misuse of passport”, the ministry said in its statement.
The laws also carry a possible jail sentence for pregnant women as well as a fine of 2,000 kwacha for their male partners.
Activists are accusing the government of both adopting the age limit for sex workers but failing to explain how the government arrived at the decision.
(AFP/Kallesh Ram/News.com.au)
This story was originally published on News.com.au.