“I got married ten years ago and, mentally, I wasn’t ready to have children. But, pressured by my husband’s family, I was obligated to get pregnant six years ago. After giving birth, I got depression and a number of physical illnesses. Sometimes I wished death upon my child because I thought the child was the cause of my pain,” Bahmani, 36, told Rudaw English.
“I no longer want to have a child. The psychologists who I visited also told me that,” she said, her hands shaking. “Two weeks ago, I was told I’m pregnant, despite using the pill. I don’t want to suffer from my previous pain again.”
A new law, however, is making it difficult for Bahmani to get the abortion she wants. The Youthful Population and Protection of the Family law has generated a lot of controversy among women’s civil and rights activists.
The law severely restricts access to abortion, contraception, and voluntary sterilization services. The goal is to boost the declining fertility rates, but critics say the law tramples on women’s human rights.
Under the law, those who facilitate abortion are threatened with heavy punishment. UN experts have called for its abolishment, referring to article 61 that states that abortion, if carried out on a large scale, would fall under the crime of “corruption on earth” and would carry the death penalty.
Since the law came into force, access to birth control and abortions has fallen. Women who were previously able to obtain an illegal abortion can no longer do so.
“My husband and I decided to abort the baby at three months. But, we have been back and forth in doctor’s visits for two weeks. The psychologists don’t find my plea for aborting the baby justifiable and we can’t access the process of abortion like before,” said Bahmani. “Three days ago, we convinced a doctor in Sanandaj to perform the surgery for an amount of money, but the doctor said we have to get the medications ourselves. My husband has looked for them in all the pharmacies in Sanandaj and Kermashah, but he couldn’t find the drugs that were readily available before.”
Bahmani and her husband decided to visit Tehran as they have been told smuggled drugs can be found in the capital’s Naser Khosrow Street. “I don’t want to repeat my previous experience and suffer from all that pain again,” she said.
Women’s rights activists are worried about how this law will affect women’s health and their ability to help women.
“Some of the articles of the youthful population law threaten to punish those who want to teach and educate mothers about childbirth,” legal expert and women’s rights activist Maryam Husseini told Rudaw English.
She’s also worried that the law could lead to an unsafe black market.
“Passing a law that doesn’t consider the health of mothers will definitely lead to an increase in smuggled drugs and [illegal] abortion surgeries, whose victims are women. From now on, we have to expect that a large number of abortion surgeries will be taking place in illegal places that might be nonstandard, leaving the mother with physical and sexual problems, and sometimes death,” she said.
Sumaya Ahmed, 38, had an abortion four days ago.
“My child was three months old when I knew I was pregnant. Our economic situation isn’t good. We didn’t want to raise my child in Iran’s chaotic situation that has an unclear future,” Ahmed told Rudaw English through Instagram. Unemployment and poverty have risen in Iran under US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic.
When Ahmed decided to get an abortion, she could not find a legal option. “After a few days of searching, we found a doctor and convinced him to perform the surgery illegally for 10 million toman, which is much higher than before,” she said.
“I suffered from a lot of pain and I’m still in pain, but I’m glad that in this terrible situation, I didn’t bring another person into this community that is filled with crisis.”
The new bill also restricts access to contraception methods such as drugs or condoms that are becoming hard to find or very expensive.
At a pharmacy in Sanandaj, 30-year-old Hameed* waits for the other customers to leave and then in a low voice asks the pharmacist for condoms. The pharmacist hands him a pack priced at 80,000 tomans ($3). Hameed is shocked and says the price was only 20,000 tomans last month.
Hameed has been married for two years. “I don’t want us to have children because of our economic situation and I don’t want my wife to take contraceptive pills because of their side effects, so I use condoms. But after the new law, condoms either can’t be found in pharmacies or their prices have gone up really high compared to before, which makes it hard for us to buy,” he tells Rudaw English.
A lack of access to condoms could increase the spread of disease, some experts are warning. “The youthful population law that limits access to contraception methods like condoms could lead to an increased spread of the AIDS virus,” said Masoud Mardani, a member of Iran’s anti-AIDS committee.
*Names have been changed at their request.
