Patience Makwele
A 19-year-old student at a local institution has narrated her harrowing experience of obtaining abortion medication from an unverified seller on TikTok after falling pregnant and fearing her parents’ reaction.
The student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said fear of disappointing her strict and religious parents led her to seek help outside the formal healthcare system, where she later experienced severe pain and heavy bleeding.
She said the experience was followed by months of irregular menstrual cycles and prolonged bleeding, and that doctors later told her she may have difficulty conceiving in future.
“I am an only child back at home and my parents have been very strict. So I didn’t want to go back home to disappoint them or bring shame in the family,” she said.
The student said the pregnancy occurred around the time she began university, when she was experiencing greater independence after growing up under strict parental rules.
According to her, the man involved was also a student and denied that the pregnancy was his after she informed him.
Fearful of returning home with what she described as a “shameful disappointment”, she turned to a friend, who helped her find an individual selling abortion medication on TikTok.
The student said she took the medication and later woke during the night experiencing severe pain and heavy bleeding.
“I thought I was going to die,” she recalled.
Unable to call her parents, she contacted her roommate. They eventually contacted the seller, who came to assist her in the early hours of the morning.
The student said her problems continued, with irregular periods and episodes of heavy bleeding sometimes lasting up to two weeks.
She said that after initially believing the medication was not working, she attempted to intervene herself using a sharp object, which she believes subsequently damaged her uterus.
She said she only sought medical attention about four months later, when doctors found that something was wrong and performed further procedures.
She said doctors later told her that her chances of having a child in future were very low.
Speaking to the Young Observer, gynaecologist Salatiel Adeline Shoopala cautioned against automatically linking fertility problems to a previous abortion.
“The danger is not necessarily the medication itself,” Shoopala said.
“Medication abortion can be very safe when appropriately used. The danger is taking medication without proper assessment, accurate information and access to follow-up care if something goes wrong.”
Shoopala said medical assessment should establish how far along a pregnancy is, whether it is located inside the uterus and whether there are medical conditions that could make the medication unsafe.
With an unverified seller, she said, there may be uncertainty about whether the medication is genuine, the dosage, how it was stored and whether the instructions are appropriate.
She said some bleeding and cramping can occur following medication abortion, but unusually heavy or persistent bleeding, dizziness, weakness, fainting, severe or worsening abdominal pain, fever or feeling seriously unwell require urgent medical attention.
An incomplete abortion, where pregnancy tissue remains in the uterus, can result in continued bleeding, pain and infection, Shoopala said.
Severe infection can potentially damage the reproductive tract and affect fertility.
However, she stressed that infertility cannot simply be attributed to an abortion.
“If a woman has fertility problems after an abortion, we would need to establish what actually happened,” she said, noting that infection, retained tissue, an underlying reproductive condition or other factors would need to be investigated.
“There is a difference between being told that there may be a fertility problem and being definitively diagnosed as infertile.”
Former midwife Nsala Moola Ilukena said fear and stigma can push young women away from healthcare facilities when facing unintended pregnancies.
A young person may fear judgement from healthcare workers, parents, religious communities or society, while concerns about confidentiality may further discourage them from seeking professional help.
“If a young woman believes that walking into a clinic means somebody is going to lecture or shame her, she may look somewhere else for help,” Ilukena said.
“And today, that ‘somewhere else’ can be social media.”
Ilukena warned that information circulating online should not automatically be treated as medical advice, as pregnancies and medical histories differ.
She urged young women facing unintended pregnancies to seek information from qualified healthcare professionals and make decisions based on accurate medical information rather than fear, pressure or social-media advice.
The ministry of health and social services’ primary healthcare standards recognise termination-of-pregnancy care and require facilities to follow guidelines on advising patients regarding termination of pregnancy.
Namibia’s Abortion and Sterilization Act of 1975 prohibits abortion outside specified circumstances and requires permitted abortions to be performed by a medical practitioner at a state-controlled or designated institution, subject to prescribed requirements.
However, reliable national figures for induced abortions remain limited, particularly for abortions occurring outside formal health facilities.
The Young Observer attempted to contact several individuals advertising abortion pills online for comment. They declined to comment after being informed that the inquiry was from a journalist.
Nearly 10 months after the abortion, the student said she continues to struggle with the experience.
She said she sometimes wakes at night thinking about the amount of blood she lost and becomes so nervous that her entire body begins to shake.
“That whole experience has messed me up mentally,” she said.
She said she had grown up dreaming of becoming a mother and having her own family, but now fears that dream may not come true.
“My advice to parents is to stop being too strict about certain topics in their homes and address issues such as this freely with their children,” she said.
