Malawi's members of parliament are due to review a pregnancy termination bill before they take a recess on 23 October, a move that has stirred controversy between lawmakers as well as Malawians.
"We Malawians hide a lot behind the argument that we are a God-fearing nation; we hide behind that in order to run away from the real issue," says Beatrice Mateyo, executive director for the Coalition for the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Lilongwe.
"It is high time this bill is discussed," she added.
Recently parliament has been mostly occupied by issues related to the election, or corruption.
But this bill, which would allow for terminations of pregnancy in a hospital in only three types of cases, is creating conflict for those who do not believe in abortion in direct and pro-choice supporters.
Those who are advocating for the bill, including one of Malawi's top gynecologists, Dr. Chisale Mihango, point to the statistics: Malawi has one of the highest maternal death rates in the world--574 women died per 100,000 live births in 2014.
According to Guttmacher Institute, a US-based international reproductive health organisation, six to 18 percent of all maternal deaths are due to complications from back street abortions.
The bill does not legalize abortion; rather, it gives three medical reasons for terminating a pregnancy--if the pregnancy endangers the life of a woman, if it deemed medically necessary to prevent the physical or mental injury of a woman; or if a woman is raped or the pregnancy is the result of incest.
The bill also provides for those who falsely state they have been raped or if incest has been committed, allowing for full prosecution. The healthcare provider who would decide whether a pregnancy termination is necessary is also called upon to disregard the woman's socio-economic status.
"This is about rich versus poor, as the poor have to struggle and the cycle of poverty continues," says Mateyo, also the chairperson of the Central Region's women's chapter of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition.
"In Malawi people with money and political and maybe social connections, still manage to get a safe abortion in hospitals, and can pay money to do that. But those who don't have this access are the most endangered, and studies have shown this," says the University of Malawi academic.
Ultimately it is the state that has to deal with unsafe abortions, he adds.
"You end up with a situation where someone goes for an unsafe abortion, things go wrong, and it's the government that spends money because the woman doesn't have the funds to go to the hospital for safe treatment," says Kainja.
Part of the issue is the level of misinformation, both among lawmakers and in the general public, according to Kainja.
"Most people who are saying no to the bill will be those who haven't read the bill in its entirety," he says.
The representative of Mangochi Central, MP Victoria Kingstone, recognizes that women are already aborting babies in Malawi, but if this bill becomes law, she is concerned pregnancy terminations will become commonplace.
"My worry is that if people regularize abortion, then people will be doing it massively... Let them abort as their own thing rather than the government regularizing it," MP Kingstone tells RFI.
"Maybe the person was raped, maybe they can't take care of it financially, maybe it's a sex worker and cannot afford to carry the baby-- they are aborting!" she says, adding that she has read the bill and plans to vote no.
Kingstone said she made that decision after consulting with members of her constituency, which includes both Christian and Muslim residents, but admits that she personally believes life begins at conception as well.
Lawmakers interviewed in Malawian newspapers, including MP Kingstone, have said they would unequivocally vote no.
According to Malawian newspaper Weekend Nation, 80 percent of MPs surveyed said they would vote against the bill.
Kainja believes it will not pass either, but for different reasons.
"I think our parliament has failed us because they've not debated the contents of the bill, but have looked at it from an emotional and religious point of view, which is not what MPs should be doing," he says.
Source: RFI