Reproductive health advocate and provider receives award from Kenya OB/GYN society

Dr. Joachim Osur is an advocate, a health-care provider and a “reproductive health specialist,” in his own words. As a reproductive health practitioner, he has seen firsthand the impact of unsafe abortion on women and their families and communities. His work as a clinician led him to pursue a doctorate in public health with an emphasis on reproductive health and unsafe abortion. His experience in Kenya and other parts of Africa also propelled him into the role of advocate. It’s the melding of his experiences and training that keeps him going—talking about unsafe abortion, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. For his work, the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (KOGS) recognized him with a distinguished service award in February.

“Unsafe abortion is really the most misunderstood public health problem; people really have misconceptions about it. I have learned so much about stigma and the injustice that goes with it. Poor people don’t have access to services and rich people can get needed services in private hospitals by top gynecologists,” he says. “It’s an injustice when we talk about unsafe abortion; it is the poor people who are dying.”

Provider as advocate

His convictions about the injustice of unsafe abortion and his expertise as a physician sparked his involvement in recent revisions to the Kenya constitution. Basically, he says, abortion became a central issue. In the beginning, he and colleagues argued that abortion should not be put into constitution. In the end, the constitution was rewritten to allow for abortion in cases of emergency and when a woman’s life and health are in danger and is only permitted by a trained health professional. Though the results weren’t exactly what he and other advocates for reproductive health had wanted, “they are good enough. We have leeway to provide services,” he says. And, those services are more likely to be safe and comprehensive because of the law’s provision for trained providers. “It [working on the constitution] was the experience of a lifetime,” he says. In fact, he’s finishing a book about the process.

But Dr. Osur’s work doesn’t stop at the Kenyan borders. As an Ipas Africa Alliance senior advisor, he is engaged in service delivery issues in Zambia, Malawi, Uganda and parts of francophone Africa. “I’ve been helping Ministries of Health develop standards and guidelines, procure MVA [manual vacuum aspiration] kits and make sure abortion services are part and parcel of reproductive health services. We see a lot of progress in Zambia. Now services are much accepted. We also have medical abortion accepted as public health drug treatment,” he notes.

Medical abortion is a promising development for women in Africa, he adds. “Medical abortion is truly woman-centered. A lot of women are learning about it from many avenues, including the Internet. I see this as de-medicalizing abortion and reducing crude methods that have led to problems and complications. We must make this technology available and teach women about it.”

Talking about saving women

Dr. Osur’s tireless efforts to protect women and families from unsafe abortion and open doors to comprehensive reproductive health care began with his medical training and continue. “Before I came to Ipas, in 2005, I started presenting about unsafe abortion at KOGS conferences. People got quiet, didn’t ask questions and there would be one or two negative comments. Almost every year I have presented, asking them to do something more – to talk, to let the country know that this is a problem,” he says.

“If you are in Africa, you see the health injustices. You see the health problems. If you have a human heart you have to do something about it. Whenever we talk about it, we find a lot of opposition. But one has to keep talking about it. I think the more I get opposition, the more frustration, the more I feel I have to do something about it. I think it is unethical to continue treating women with botched abortions — we know we can prevent them. Part of our mandate is to be ethical in what we do. If we keep signing their death certificates for preventable deaths, we are unethical,” he adds.

Source: http://www.ipas.org