Youth advocate and NGUVU collective change leader Deborah Monari’s petition on the Nairobi City county Finance bill to reduce the prices of family planning services has bore fruits.
The proposed Nairobi Finance Bill 2023, was set to increase fees for essential services including family planning.
According to the prosed Bill, the cost to insert and remove an implant would go up to Ksh 500,Ksh 350 to insert an IUCD and Ksh. 500 to remove it.
A Depo-Provera injection would have cost ksh.150 and critical, post-abortion care would have cost Ksh 300,
This would remarkably make health services for adolescents and young women unaffordable, especially when teen pregnancies and deaths resulting from unsafe abortion complications are becoming a rising tide in Nairobi.
Human rights advocate and Nguvu collective change leader, Deborah Monari, took a step to initiate a rapid response campaign called #FreeFamilyPlanningForAll, to challenge the Bill.
Monari’s petition was titled; Stop bill that makes contraceptives unaffordable for women of reproductive age, appealing to the Nairobi County Governor not to exclude women from family planning services.
The petition saw a massive support from citizens across the country as well as from advocacy champions Damblash Ermiyas and Alvin Mwangi (Youth Empowerment Movement – YEM)
Her efforts saw the proposed bill being amended, significantly decreasing the post-abortion care cost fee from Ksh 3000 to 500 and charges remaining free in level 3 and below hospitals.
This would make it possible for women and youth to access the care they need.
“ With support from sexual and reproductive rights activists, our campaign was able to ensure that affordable access to contraceptives and family planning services continues for women in Nairobi, particularly for those from low-income backgrounds,”said Debora.
“Making family planning services inaccessible would have pushed us back in our fight against unplanned pregnancies, HIV, and unsafe abortions, ” added Deborah
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