Across ten Southern African nations, a new Afrobarometer survey reveals a society in the midst of a quiet but consequential reckoning: large majorities affirm that women should govern the most intimate decisions of their own lives, yet those same majorities draw firm moral lines around abortion that leave millions of women without safe options. The data captures a region where values are shifting faster than laws, and where the distance between principle and practice is measured, too often, in lives lost. What Southern Africans believe about women's autonomy and what their institutions offer t
Southern Africans Back Women's Autonomy on Marriage, Reproduction, but Split on Abortion
Unsafe abortion is a primary cause of maternal deaths in the SADC region; one in three unintended pregnancies terminated under hazardous conditions due to restrictive laws.