Senegal: Where Women’s Bodies Belong to Everyone But Themselves

This story by Bowel Diop and translated by Laura originally appeared on Global Voices on December 27, 2025.

In Senegal, women who are victims of rape can be condemned for trying to take control of their lives by having an abortion.

Like many other African countries, Senegal ratified the Maputo Protocol on December 27, 2004, an African Union treaty that promotes and protects the rights of women and girls across Africa. According to the provisions of Article 14, signatory states must:

However, in Senegal, this right largely remains mere words. Human rights organizations, such as the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Senegalese League of Human Rights (LSDH), and the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights (RADDHO), a national NGO based in the Senegalese capital Dakar, denounce the State’s non-compliance with its international commitments. In 2024, these three organizations published their Dual Hardship report, warning that Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol has not been transposed into national legislation, and that women victims of rape or incest must consequently carry their pregnancy to term.

In Senegal, Article 305 of the Criminal Code prohibits abortion, except under limited therapeutic circumstances intended to save a mother’s life. This situation drives many women, including the victims of rape or incest, towards illegal, dangerous, and often life-threatening practices.

According to Prison-Insider, a France-based platform that shares information on prisons across the world, up to 46 percent of the women held in Liberté VI prison in Senegal are convicted of infanticide, demonstrating the scale of the problem.

See Also: How Kenya’s New Seed-Sharing Law Forces Marigat Women to Store Seeds into Foodbanks to Protect Traditional Maize Varieties

While the right to abortion is barely recognized, the reasons are not only legal, but also socio-cultural.

Religious argument

The religious argument is the most often used to justify the prohibition of abortion.  Although 95 percent of the Senegalese population is Muslim, the country is a secular republic. Article 1 of its constitution stipulates:

Under a secular state, the debate should stay within the medical and legal fields. It is worth noting that according to some Muslim traditions, the soul is breathed into the fetus 120 days after the embryo’s development, meaning that terminating a pregnancy before this date does not constitute ending a life.

In any case, all women have the right to make decisions about their bodies without any collective religious constraints. Should the argument that an unborn child has no say in the matter take away the rights of women whose consent was not requested?

See Also: Women “Talk too Much” and “Want to be R*ped”: Nick Fuentes Sparks Outrage on Piers Morgan Show With Misogynist Rant and Virgin Admission

Why sacrifice the lives of an already wounded conscious being for a potential life? This argument doesn’t hold up when looking at women’s mental health, physical health, or dignity. The right to bodily autonomy must take precedence. Asking a victim of rape or ’incest to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term for the sake of “societal values” is hypocritical, harsh, and deeply unjust.

Protecting moral standards

The other argument used against the right to abortion is that of tradition. What “moral standards” are we trying to protect? If “morals” mean controlling women’s bodies, then these morals are outdated. The “moral standards” we should protect are women’s dignity and freedom, not patriarchal conservatism.

The real issue is patriarchy, which continues to dictate what women should do with their bodies. The power of this ideology is such that some women, including educated women, defend it, proving to what extent patriarchal norms are internalized, even by those who should dismantle them.

In Africa, the arguments against abortion are strikingly similar and directly associated with three main areas: religion, traditions, and African values.” They revolve around the prohibition of killing found in three monotheistic religions, around the idea that abortion is an imported practice, foreign to local culture, which threatens the traditional moral values that consider motherhood a blessing. Another common argument is that an innocent, defenceless fetus should not pay for the circumstances of the pregnancy.

However, these arguments are primarily based on emotions, taboos, or a form of conservatism, and rarely on science, fundamental rights, or the reality of sexual violence. In Senegal, JGEN, an NGO committed to combating gender-based violence, has stepped up its calls for the law to stop criminalizing the victims of rape and incest, thus complying with the Maputo Protocol. 

As a woman, I support the unconditional right to abortion. All women should be able to freely decide what is best for their bodies, their lives, their health, and their future, especially in cases of rape or incest. Choice should be a right and not a luxury.

(SY)

Suggested Reading: