AT least 36 babies have been discarded in Namibia since the beginning of the year, either through abortion or concealment of birth.
According to statistics provided by the Namibian Police, 13 babies were aborted between January and June this year nationally, while 20 were dumped by their mothers.
Three babies were dumped since July to date – all at the coast.
Police spokesperson Kauna Shikwambi on Monday said the figures mark a slight increase from last year, which had 32 cases – 15 abortions and 17 concealments.
In 2017, such cases stood at 44, with 16 abortions and a total of 28 cases of babies having been dumped.
Shikwambi revealed that 12 women were arrested with regard to such cases since the beginning of the year.
She stressed that birth concealment is illegal, and is criminalised under the General Law Amendment Ordinance of 1962, Ordinance 13 of 1962 under section 7 (1), which states that any person who disposes of the dead body of any child with intent to conceal the fact of its birth, whether the child died before, during or after birth, shall be guilty of an offence.
Abortion is also unlawful in terms of section 2 of the Abortion and Sterilisation Act, 1975, Act 2 of 1975, or as amended by the Abortion and Sterilisation Amendment Act 18 of 1976, she said.
“There are, however, in terms of Section 3 of the same act, certain circumstances under which an abortion can be legally performed by a medical practitioner, only under those medical circumstances such as rape,” she added.
Shikwambi said perpetrators can avoid becoming criminals by getting help for themselves and their babies, and by not abandoning a child but rather to seek counsel, and leave the child within the physical control of a person at premises such as a hospital, police station, children’s home or any place of safety, or even with relatives.
According to her, the law, however, does make provision for a parent, guardian or caregiver who abandons a child not to be prosecuted under section 254 of the Child Care and Protection Act, provided the child shows no signs of abuse, neglect or malnutrition.
“This means that the law will not prosecute those who make arrangements by giving the child to individuals at the hospital, the police, a shelter or other safe place as I have indicated, provided that the child has no sign of abuse, neglect, or malnutrition,” she reiterated.
About a week ago, a newborn baby boy was flushed down a toilet at the Swakopmund State Hospital – a week after the discarded body of a newborn baby boy was discovered at the Walvis Bay dumpsite.
Last month, a foetus, estimated to be about five months old, was found in a rubbish bin on a seaside gravel road near Long Beach.
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