A Pill in the Lifeworld of Women in Burkina Faso: Can Misoprostol Reframe the Meaning of Abortion

In Burkina Faso, induced abortion is socially stigmatized, condemned, disapproved and legally restricted to cases of rape, incest, fetal malformation or endangerment to the life of the mother. Many women often resort to unsafe procedures to induce abortion, which puts their health at great risk. Misoprostol, which is officially restricted to the treatment of postpartum hemorrhage or post-abortion care, is also used illegally by women to terminate their pregnancies. Misoprostol represents an addition to the existing abortion methods, such as vacuum aspiration, which health workers have often used to induce abortion clandestinely. Many women also use misoprostol to self-induce abortions, replacing abortifacients such as herbal teas, potions, high doses of antimalarial drugs, or bleach. Despite the changes that occur in abortion access due to the use of misoprostol, little is known about what the drug means to its users and how this meaning can in turn influence the meaning of abortion. The aim of this paper is to describe how the use of misoprostol to terminate pregnancy contributes to changing women’s perception of the meaning of abortion. This paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between March 2016 and February 2017 in the city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. By examining the relation between the use of misoprostol and the meaning that women give to abortion, this study found that women experience abortion either spontaneously or using emergency contraception with misoprostol. Through the experience of women, this paper claims that the meaning of abortion should be seen as a social construct and fundamentally rooted in individual practices and experiences rather than being subject to dichotomist global discourse.