KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 – The Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM) assisted 4,602 clients who reached out to the group through its hotline between January and December last year, according to its 2024 annual report.
This was an increase of 56.4 per cent from the previous year when the group received 2,943 clients through its hotline.
On average, RRAAM attended to 380 clients per month, up from 250 per month the previous year.
The hotline received the most number of clients in the last three months of the year with more than 400 clients each month from October to December.
RRAAM is a women’s rights and health advocacy group that offers free consultation service on safe, affordable and women-friendly medical and surgical abortion services, and contraceptive methods through its hotline.
As in the previous year, the majority of clients came from the 19 to 24 age group (36.8 per cent), followed by the 25 to 30 age group (33 per cent).
Other clients came from the 31 to 35 age group (14.7 per cent) and the 36 to 40 age group (9 per cent) of clients.
The hotline also consulted with clients over the age of 40 (3.4 per cent) and under the age of 18 (3.1 per cent), both groups accounting for the lowest numbers of all its clients in 2024.
Unmarried individuals made up the bulk of RRAAM’s hotline clients at 61.1 per cent, while married individuals comprised 38.9 per cent of hotline’s clientele last year.
The majority of hotline clients last year had no children (59.9) per cent, while 27.4 per cent had one to two children, and 10.1 per cent had three to four children. Clients with five children or more made up 2.6 per cent of RRAAM’s hotline clientele last year.
An overwhelming majority of the clients had positive results (95 per cent) from a urine pregnancy test (UPT), while a significantly smaller number (5 per cent) tested negative after taking the UPT.
As in the previous year, most of RRAAM’s clients in 2024 were in the first trimester of their pregnancy (83.5 per cent), while 10.9 per cent were in the 13 to 22 week gestational period and 5.6 per cent were pregnant at 23 weeks and above.
Most clients who consulted RRAAM in 2024 preferred getting a medical abortion (65 per cent), while 20 per cent cited their preference for surgical abortion. Those who had no preference constituted 15 per cent of the hotline’s clients.
Medical abortion, which is widely practised throughout the world, involves intake of the medication combination of mifepristone and misoprostol.
Both medications are listed on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of core medicines for reproductive health.
However, these medications are not on the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) registered list of medications and are therefore prohibited from sale in Malaysia.
About 90 per cent of the hotline’s clients were from Peninsula Malaysia, with most of them from the Klang Valley (62.6 per cent), while 6.1 per cent came from East Malaysia with 3 per cent from Sabah and 3.1 per cent from Sarawak. A small percentage (2.4) of RRAAM’s hotline clients last year were from overseas.
While abortion is permitted under Section 312 of the Penal Code in Malaysia, which allows a medical practitioner to perform the procedure in circumstances when the life of the pregnant woman is in jeopardy or there is a threat of injury to her mental and physical health, a 21-year-old woman was recently sentenced to nine months’ jail for using misoprostol to terminate her five-month pregnancy.
At the end of 2023, a 22-year-old woman in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, was also jailed, for a day and fined RM2,000 for terminating her pregnancy.
In both cases, RRAAM released a statement expressing its solidarity with the victims. The group also urged the MOH to register both Mifepristone and Misoprostol, as recommended by the WHO, and to publish clear and accessible information on how to access safe abortion care and contraceptive services
RRAAM also called out health care providers who reported patients who sought abortions, to the authorities, reminding them that it is their duty to ensure confidentiality, dignity and the quality of life of these patients.
Access to abortion continues to be a controversial subject in Malaysia. Although allowed under the law subject to conditions, many women in the country in both public and private health care facilities face barriers accessing abortion and contraception services due to the high costs, societal judgement and prejudice, and the threat of legal action.
For a list of women-friendly clinics offering safe and affordable abortion services, and contraceptive counselling, whatsapp the RRAAM hotline at 6018-3687950.
