Married Woman Dies while Aborting 2-months Pregnancy, Friend Arrested

The police in Amuru district have arrested a woman for procuring an unsafe abortion using a combination of an Antiretroviral drug (ARV) with Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) and some local herbs leading to the death of a 22-year-old friend.

  

According to police, the suspect identified as Proscovia Ayerwot, 22, who is a resident of Kal B Cell in Pabbo Town Council Amuru district lured her 22-year-old friend identified as Concy Aryemo to ingest local herbs and drugs to terminate her two-months-old pregnancy.  

A statement from Jimmy Opiro, a relative of the deceased, indicates that the suspect Aryemo, gave her the drugs and local herbs and convinced her to ingest them last Tuesday with hopes of terminating the pregnancy.  

However, Aryemo developed complications after taking the concoctions prompting relatives to rush her to Pabbo Health Centre 3 for medical attention. 

  

Her condition worsened and was later transferred to St Mary`s Hospital Lacor in Gulu City for further management from where she died a day later.   

Opiro says upon interrogation before her death, Aryemo confessed that she took the concoctions which were given to her by Ayerwot to terminate the pregnancy. 

The case was then reported to Pabbo Police Post prompting the arrest of Ayerwot.   

A neighbor in the area told URN on condition of anonymity that the deceased was reportedly related to her husband indicating that the pregnancy came from incest yet the two had been married for over one year.  

The source adds that they had also been battling domestic disputes which are believed to have risen from poverty adding that the husband is a boda-boda motorcyclist.

  

David Ongom Mudong, the Aswa River Region Police Spokesperson said on Tuesday that the suspect was picked up by the police yesterday and is being held at Pabbo Police Station where a case of murder has been preferred against her under CRB 319/2022. 

Mudong says a preliminary investigation indicates that the deceased was given a local herb to abort the pregnancy by Ayerwot.   

Brenda Aromorach, a Women`s rights activist urged women to share their problems with loved ones instead of taking drastic steps such as abortion which she also notes is criminal.  

//Cue in: ‘’before you come… // 

Cue out: …offices even police.’’//  

A recent report from the health departments in the Acholi Sub-region indicates that a total of 14,530 cases of post-abortion care were registered in various health facilities between 2020 and 2021 alone. 

  

The report was captured from health facilities in the districts of Nwoya, Omoro, Pader, Kitgum, Lamwo, Gulu, Amuru, and Agago, indicating that 2,922 (38 percent) of the abortion cases registered in Out Patient Department (OPD) were teenagers.