Kenyan clinics hit by Bush abortion ruling

Aids and family planning clinics could be affected

One of George W Bush's first moves as president was to bar US funds from overseas abortion groups. The BBC's Cathy Jenkins looks at the implications for Kenyan family planning projects.

Nurse Sara Imbadu counsels a woman who is worried that she has become pregnant - for a fifth time.

The clinic where Nurse Imbadu works is run by the Family Planning Association of Kenya. Its main purpose is to give advice on contraception.

If a woman is determined to have an abortion, the clinic tries to make sure she goes to a reputable doctor, and not to a back street abortionist.

Abortion is technically illegal in Kenya, but doctors will carry it out for a fee.

Safe refuge

The clinic also sees many traumatised rape victims. Many feel it is the only place to which they can turn.

Bush decided to ban government funding for abortion groups

One such victim is a 16-year-old girl. She described her attack, saying: "He was carrying a knife so I had to go with him to the house. He raped me and then called a friend who raped me too."

Family planning consultant Dr Gottlieb Mpangile stresses that no US money has ever gone towards funding abortions.

But where sexual abuse is rife, he says, no one should judge a woman who decides to abort.

"If we were living in a society where this was not happening, and all women had access to safe and available contraceptives, abortion by itself would disappear," he says.

"But we are living in a society where these things are happening, so we don't believe that anybody - however powerful, however close to God he is - has the right to tell a woman who has gone through this painful process of rape to carry the pregnancy to term."

Catholic view

But Kenya's Catholics are pleased by what President Bush has done.

They believe in abstinence, not contraception, and other ways of helping rape victims.

Catholic groups support Bush's decision

Lucy Kazungu, from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, said: "If you encourage the girl to go for an abortion, she is going to be doubly traumatised."

Firstly there is the trauma of the rape, and then the trauma of the abortion, she asserted.

Whilst the debate rages, volunteers from the family planning clinic are busy in a slum school teaching the children about Aids.

This is the sort of project the volunteers worry about.

If funding is cut back, these lessons could disappear - and they are helping the very poorest of children.