Gugu Ndlovu’s The Barrel of a Pen

I thought that Gugu Ndlovu’s short story, The Barrel of a Pen, was the most powerful and most disconcerting of the three stories we read. I did a little research on the issue of abortion in Zimbabwe (where the story takes place, assumedly, since Ndlovu herself is from Zimbabwe) and was shocked to discover that nearly 70,000 black market abortions (like the one described in the story) occur each year in Zimbabwe according to a 2005 report released by UNICEF (http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=53659). The high number of illegal abortions is due in part to the lack of sex education in Zimbabwe, which heightens the number of unplanned pregnancies, in turn raising the demand for abortions. The large number of unplanned pregnancies paired with the difficulty and high cost of getting a legal abortion make black market abortions more convenient, although one puts their life at stake when choosing to go through with the procedure. From what I read, legal abortions are extremely hard to have performed in Zimbabwe, unless the woman’s life is endangered, or if the fetus runs the risk of suffering from a mental or physical defect, or was conceived as a result of rape or incest. On top of this, there is also a great deal of paperwork and red tape a woman must go through to get approval for a legal abortion. Thus, most women turn to illegal abortion as an easy (but very risky) alternative.

Speaking from my own perspective as a young woman, I have to say that this story disturbed and saddened me deeply when I read it. I am pro-choice myself, but I have always felt that women should only turn to abortion as a last resort, or if they strongly believe that an abortion would be best choice for their situation. Yes, I believe in a woman’s right to choose, but I can’t but criticize or look down upon women (in this country) who have had three or four abortions. That’s just irresponsibility on the woman’s part. It’s not women in the U.S. lack access to sex education or contraceptives. Abortion isn’t a contraceptive, it’s a last resort. Especially in a country as affluent and educated as the United States, the vital need for abortion is much lower compared to other countries where the education and information just isn’t there (as in the case of Zimbabwe). It’s a little different if a woman in the U.S. gets pregnant by mistake because they have more education (and better access to getting a legal abortion than women in some countries do), but if a woman in Zimbabwe gets pregnant mistakenly, the blame cannot fall entirely on her because there is such a lack of education and information on the subject of reproduction. Nevertheless, I believe abortion cases in the U.S. must be examined separately from abortion cases in developing nations because there is such a stark contrast between the circumstances of the two areas. Thus, the high demand for terminating unwanted pregnancies in developing nations cannot be frowned upon so much because women are not exposed to sex education as much as they are in more affluent nations. Furthermore, this is one of the reasons why I feel that women in these African nations have just as much right to having a safe and legal abortion performed as women in the U.S. do. Yes, abortion is still a highly debated today, even in this country, but if restricting abortions causes double the deaths that abortion would, is it really worth it?

Moreover, this story spoke to me primarily because I am a woman. For this reason I felt I could relate to Rachael’s character. The predicament Rachael found herself in is one that any women could face under certain circumstances. I put myself in Rachael’s shoes when reading the story. I imagined being in her position - being pregnant, not wanting to be pregnant, and having no other way to terminate the preganancy other than having a black market abortion performed. Being put in that situation, I’m really not sure what I would do. Maybe I’m being a little culturally biased here, but for argumentative purposes I am going to go ahead and assume that the girls in the story came from a much less privileged background than many of us have experienced in the U.S. Basically, your choices would be limited to having the baby and starving/living in poverty because there is one more mouth to feed, or risking your life to have an illegal abortion because you cannot get a legal one/you cannot afford a legal one. That’s a really tough choice to make. You’re basically stuck having to choose what you assume to be the lesser of two evils. I’m really not sure what I would have done if I had been in Rachael’s situation, but what I am sure of is that I have definitely grown more aware/appreciative of the country we live in and of the education and choices we have here that many other nations do not have the privilege of experiencing.