Contraception and Family Planning
Attitudes toward contraception and family planning vary across Africa, though most tribes know about it. For example, contraception is not widely practiced in Congolese communities due to religious beliefs, though methods are available, and some families do use natural methods rather than modern ones.
Their religion stresses that children are a gift from God, and infants are highly valued. Infant mortality rates in the Congo are high. Abortion is strictly illegal and punishable by imprisonment; it is also forbidden by cultural laws. Despite this, premarital sex is common, and abortions are performed as families consider it shameful for unwed daughters to give birth. Abortion is often induced by taking herbal medication orally, or it is performed by illegal abortionists. Having an abortion is punishable by prison sentence. An alternative to abortion is to allow the pregnancy to progress to term and to then take the baby and new mother to the home of the baby’s father, and then demand that he pay them a fine. The baby and its mother are then left with his family and they become responsible for both.
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