By Raymond Ochieng

The death of a high school teenager at a clinic within Oruba estate in Migori town should be an eye opener on effects of illegal abortion.

Already police have arrested two suspects following the death.

Sometime last year a nurse was sentenced to death for performing a botched abortion that killed a teenage girl.

These two ugly incidences should now send a stern warning to all the merchants of death. Unsafe abortions pose a grave danger to many women,and especially teenagers driven to this by fear of retribution.

In almost all towns and even some rural trading centres, there are unscrupulous people who procure abortions as a source of lucrative extra earnings. They know it is illegal, but will risk it because those who desperately need their services will pay handsomely.

The death penalty sent many of them cold, it is a grim reminder to the crooked practitioners that are also putting their own precious lives on the line.

Access to safe abortion is a right guaranteed by the constitution to curb maternal mortality.

However according to the Ministry of Health, quacks continue to wreak havoc. Several cases of induced abortion still occur every year.

And this places a heavy burden on the healthcare system as some women are treated in hospitals for abortion complications. The message from the judge is loud and clear: Life is too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of personal gain and greed.

(The writer is a senior reporter with Migori News)