Denied Abortion Care and the Risk of Infanticide in Uganda: A Socio-Ecological and Africentric Perspective
1
Afya na Haki, Kampala, Uganda
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Infanticide is a hidden public health emergency in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Uganda, restrictive abortion laws, economic precarity, and stigma leave women with few choices and often devastating outcomes. This study reveals how the denial of abortion care fuels trajectories toward infanticide, using the Socio-Ecological Model and an Africentric justice framework.
METHODS:
A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted in seven prisons across Northern, Eastern, and Central Uganda. Eighteen women incarcerated for killing an infant aged 0–12 months were purposively recruited and interviewed using semi-structured guides, with detailed field-note transcription. Data were thematically analysed using Braun and Clarke’s approach, guided by the Socio-Ecological Model and an Africentric framework.
RESULTS:
Denied abortion care emerged as a central structural driver of reproductive distress, intersecting with sexual violence, poverty, stigma, and untreated mental health conditions. At the individual level, participants reported trauma, fear of unsafe abortion, and limited reproductive health knowledge. Interpersonally, partner abandonment and family rejection intensified isolation. Community-level stigma replaced traditional communal support systems. Institutionally, hostile health environments, lack of antenatal or mental health care, and limited legal representation reinforced vulnerability. At the societal level, restrictive abortion laws, patriarchal norms, and colonial legal legacies collectively constrained agency. Infanticide appeared as the endpoint of intersecting multi-level structural, cultural, and institutional failures rather than isolated personal pathology.
CONCLUSIONS:
Infanticide in Uganda reflects cumulative reproductive injustice rooted in the structural denial of abortion care. Prevention requires legal clarification on abortion, expanded access to reproductive and mental health services, and trauma-informed care within correctional settings. At the community level, restoring Ubuntu-based support networks can rebuild the protective systems historically central to maternal wellbeing. An Africentric reproductive justice approach offers a culturally coherent pathway for reforming health, legal, and social systems to uphold dignity, agency, and collective responsibility.
Infanticide is a hidden public health emergency in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Uganda, restrictive abortion laws, economic precarity, and stigma leave women with few choices and often devastating outcomes. This study reveals how the denial of abortion care fuels trajectories toward infanticide, using the Socio-Ecological Model and an Africentric justice framework.
METHODS:
A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted in seven prisons across Northern, Eastern, and Central Uganda. Eighteen women incarcerated for killing an infant aged 0–12 months were purposively recruited and interviewed using semi-structured guides, with detailed field-note transcription. Data were thematically analysed using Braun and Clarke’s approach, guided by the Socio-Ecological Model and an Africentric framework.
RESULTS:
Denied abortion care emerged as a central structural driver of reproductive distress, intersecting with sexual violence, poverty, stigma, and untreated mental health conditions. At the individual level, participants reported trauma, fear of unsafe abortion, and limited reproductive health knowledge. Interpersonally, partner abandonment and family rejection intensified isolation. Community-level stigma replaced traditional communal support systems. Institutionally, hostile health environments, lack of antenatal or mental health care, and limited legal representation reinforced vulnerability. At the societal level, restrictive abortion laws, patriarchal norms, and colonial legal legacies collectively constrained agency. Infanticide appeared as the endpoint of intersecting multi-level structural, cultural, and institutional failures rather than isolated personal pathology.
CONCLUSIONS:
Infanticide in Uganda reflects cumulative reproductive injustice rooted in the structural denial of abortion care. Prevention requires legal clarification on abortion, expanded access to reproductive and mental health services, and trauma-informed care within correctional settings. At the community level, restoring Ubuntu-based support networks can rebuild the protective systems historically central to maternal wellbeing. An Africentric reproductive justice approach offers a culturally coherent pathway for reforming health, legal, and social systems to uphold dignity, agency, and collective responsibility.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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