As I lay in my hostel rolling around in excruciating pain, I wondered whether I made the right decision. I had just taken abortion pills two days after finding out that I was pregnant. As a first-year university student, having a child was never on my horizon. I had sent my roommate way on that weekend so that I could have privacy during that time.
I did not confide in anyone about the pregnancy. I felt ashamed to be in that situation when I should have known better. What followed was the onset of clinical depression. Even though I did not know what to call the overwhelming sadness I felt at the time, I knew it was not ordinary. I could barely make it out of my hostel room for days and was constantly crying.
When I first suspected I was pregnant and went to the university clinic for a test, the nurse accused me of ‘philandering instead of concentrating on my studies’. I knew then that I could not tell anyone about my planned abortion because they would castigate my choices and question my morality.
To say the least, I felt alone and broken.
In retrospect, I wish 19-year-old me had comprehensive post-abortion care in the form of psychosocial support. I wish I had a safe space to talk about my predicament that would have prevented the depression I succumbed to. To provide post-abortion care for young people, there must be a cultural shift about comprehensive sex education amongst medical practitioners, higher learning institutions, and even within the basic social structure: the family.
According to the National Aids Control Council (NACC), Kenya has the third highest teenage pregnancy rate in the world with about 80 births per 1000 births being from teenagers. It is only through acceptance of the importance of sex education that conversation on early pregnancies, contraceptives, and post-abortion care can be destigmatized. These conversations need to then be mainstreamed in educational institutions in an age-appropriate manner.
To overcome the mental health implication of emerging issues, society must address the root cause. The provision of comprehensive reproductive health care including post-abortion care can be an effective tool in preventing mental health issues amongst young people.