NAIROBI: A Kenyan appeals court on Friday overturned a landmark ruling that accessing abortion was a fundamental right.

The court case dated back to Sept 2019, when a 16-year-old girl was arrested in her hospital bed by police, along with the doctor.

She had come to the clinic with severe complications from an abortion, including pain and bleeding, and the doctor determined she had lost the baby and provided post-abortion care, their lawyers say.

The doctor was charged with providing abortion services and held in custody for a week. The girl was charged with procuring an abortion, and because she could not afford bail, was held in a prison for more than a month.

The High Court ruling in March 2022 not only quashed the charges, but affirmed that access to abortion was a constitutional right, and that patients must be protected

from practices such as forced medical examinations used to prosecute them.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2026