In 2006, Togo passed a law that says, "The voluntary interruption of pregnancy is only authorised when prescribed by a doctor and on request of the woman in cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape or of an incestuous relationship [or] if there is a strong risk that the unborn child will by affected by a particularly serious medical condition.
"[1] Abortions without medical prescriptions are punishable up to ten years in prison or fines between 500,000 and 3 million CFA francs.
[2] When Togo gained independence, it inherited the French Penal Code of 1810, which banned abortion.
[3] In October 2005, Togo ratified the Maputo Protocol, which provides for a right to abortion under certain grounds.
"[8] The head of prenatal care at the Tokoin Teaching Hospital in Lomé, Boukari Amina, said the law "will fix a lot of things.
[13] The non-governmental organization L'Association Togolaise pour le Bien-être Familial (ATBFE, transl.
[14] In countries including Togo, U.S.–linked anti-abortion groups have set up centers disseminating misinformation related to abortion.
Barriers to PAC for adolescents include lack of provisions for young patients, high cost, and poor organization leading to low privacy.
[16] In 2004, ATBFE began an experiment providing free post-abortion care kits to poor women in two hospitals.
[17] USAID's Virtual Fostering Change Program began in 2008 to assess and improve PAC services in Togo, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Senegal.
After the program trained health providers, facility managers delivered services more efficiently, clinics offered more contraceptives, and MVA became more common than manual removal.