A 16-year-old girl narrowly survived death because of excessive bleeding when a traditional doctor helped her abort when she was four months pregnant.
The traditional doctor, Agness Muroyiwa was on Monday sentenced to do 490 hours of community service at Tshabalala Police Station. She was being jointly charged with the girl for illegally terminating the pregnancy.
The teenage girl (name withheld for legal reasons) who bled profusely after terminating the pregnancy, had charges against her withdrawn before plea.
Provincial Bulawayo magistrate Mrs Learnmore Mapiye initially sentenced Muroyiwa to 24 months in prison and suspended 10 months for five years on condition of good behaviour. The remaining 14 months were suspended on condition she completes 490 hours of community service.
The girl, who stays in Barham Green, had consulted Muroyiwa last month seeking help to abort. On 22 November at about 6pm, the girl visited her friend in Bellevue and informed her that she wanted to terminate the pregnancy.
Her friend advised her that she had a grandmother (Muroyiwa) who was a specialist in terminating pregnancies and could assist her. The two went to Tshabalala on 24 November where Muroyiwa took the 16-year-old girl into a room, which she used for consultation.
The old woman inserted the herbs into the girl’s private parts and told her that the herbs would come out on their own and at the same time destroy the foetus. She charged the girl $10 for the service and the girl paid before going home.
However, she started bleeding excessively when she arrived home prompting her mother to suspect that she had aborted. The girl lied to her mother that she had period pains, which resulted in her losing the pregnancy.
She was taken to the United Bulawayo Hospitals for examination where it was confirmed that she had aborted. A report was later made to the police leading to Muroyiwa’s arrest. Miss Tarisai Mutarisi represented the State.