Last month thousands of placard weaving demonstrators descended on Malawi's parliament in Ilongue to protest against proposed abortion reforms.

Malawians have spoken a clear message.

A clear message to their leaders, to the members of parliament that they are saying no to

abortion.

Malawi loses a best load of women every month and whether we allow abortion to be done properly

or not it will still happen.

I am Jipi Rok and Silanga and in this BBC World Service program I will be looking at this

issue which has deeply divided Malayan society and put many politicians and health

officials at odds with religious leaders.

Margaret lives in a simple mad and trash house in Doha District.

She said she had an abortion because she couldn't afford to have another baby so she decided to have

terminated.

At the moment a woman who tries to procure an abortion

faces up to 14 years in jail unless doctors can prove that the woman's life would be at risk if she

continues the pregnancy.

She says she went to a traditional medicine man and got the concussion, a reddish liquid,

and she was just giving that liquid to drink. Around 6 p.m. she started bleeding heavily.

She started bleeding heavily,

also a lot of back pains,

but she couldn't go to the hospital because she was afraid of the

law. She thinks that if they had discovered that she had an abortion they would

have reported her to police and then maybe get her arrested.

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