Abortion in Uganda is illegal unless performed by a licensed medical doctor in a situation where the woman's life is deemed to be at risk.
[6][7] The Ugandan Constitution, in Article 22, item 2 states: "No person has the right to terminate the life of an unborn child except as may be authorised by law.
[9][10] The Ugandan Ministry of Health's 2006 National Policy Guidelines and Service Standards for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights lays out a number of specific cases in which women have the right to seek an abortion, including rape, sexual violence or incest, or when the woman has pre-existing conditions such as HIV or cervical cancer.
[13] Nonetheless, Section 224 of the Code provides that a person is not criminally responsible for performing in good faith and with reasonable care and skill a surgical operation upon an unborn child for the preservation of the mother's life.
In 1988, the Ugandan government launched a comprehensive program in response to the country's high fertility and growth rates, which adversely affected per capita incomes and threatened the sustainability of social services.
For instance, the program made birth control accessible at clinics across the country operated by the Family Planning Association of Uganda.
[20] This commitment to increasing access to family planning has had tremendous impact, with a study revealing that the contraceptive prevalence rate has jumped to 39% as of 2016, while maternal mortality ratios have dropped by around 25%.
[22] In fact, healthcare providers who treat women for bleeding, infections, or other post-abortion complications are forbidden by law from interrogating their patients or reporting them to the authorities.