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A new survey has revealed that only 2.85 per cent of Kenyans support abortion without a medical reason.
The Central region is having the highest acceptance at 14 per cent, according to the survey by IPSOS Synovate and the Kenya Christian Professionals Forum (KCPF).
North Eastern and Nairobi regions follow closely behind in the acceptance of abortions without a medical reason at 12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
According to the study dubbed Perceptions Towards Abortion and Homosexuality in Kenya, most of those who support abortion without a medical reason were between 18 and 24 years.
Though 75 per cent of those who support abortion without medical reasons pegged it on protecting the mother’s life if the baby endangers it, 43 per cent supported if the couple is not ready for a child on grounds of career advancement.
Immoral act
“There is a growing need for flexibility of working conditions for women so as to allow them to have a choice on having both a family and a career. Women are boxed into making a decision between career and family. Employers need to take serious note of this,” said Margaret Ireri, the managing director of Ipsos Synovate.
Of those who did not support abortion, 48 per cent said it was an immoral act with 59 per cent saying it was ungodly.
The study that also looked into the perceptions of Kenyans on homosexuality revealed that 64 per cent of the sample population interviewed said homosexuality was learnt as opposed to it being a natural phenomenon.
According to Dr Wahome Ngare, a gynaecologist and member of KCPF, homosexuality was learnt.
“When, for example, a boy is brought up by a single mother and he is socialised into a female lifestyle and will watch say how the mother carries the hand bag and how she walks, he will grow up thinking that is how he is meant to act too,” he explained.
The doctor added that other ways that homosexuality may be acquired is if the child was sexually abused and through experimentation.
Dr Ngare said both abortion and homosexuality were social problems and social solutions should be sought.
“We cannot throw people in prison because that will not have solved the social problem of homosexuality,” he said on the question of if Kenya should go the Ugandan way in dealing with homosexuality.
The survey was carried in urban and rural areas with a sample population of 2,059 – both male and female – from 18 years and above.
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