Police arrest woman for ‘abortion’
Police in Mzuzu have arrested a 20 year old woman for allegedly aborting her six month old foetus, Nyasa Times has learnt.
Passerby found the lifeless body of the foetus during the early hours of Saturday on the road side junction to Sungawana Rest House along the M1 road to Karonga. It was wrapped in a Chitenje.
The woman, Jacqueline Jackson, of Sosola village, Traditional Authority Nsamala, Balaka district, was arrested three days later on Tuesday after Police got a tip off.
But Police have charged the woman, who worked at Big Five Bar at Chibanja Township, with the offence of ‘Concealing the birth of a child” contrary to section 232 of the Penal Code.
“The offence attracts two year imprisonment with hard labour with no option for fine if one is found guilty,” Mzuzu Police Station Spokesperson Sergeant Edward Longwe said.
Longwe said investigations done at Mzuzu Central Hospital confirmed that Jacqueline had recently gave birth.
In her caution statement Jacqueline expressed ignorance about her pregnancy adding that when she gave birth prematurely she did not know what to do with the baby but to dump it.
Police have since asked women who are not ready to have children to desist from premarital sex or use contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies, according to Longwe.
