guest column:Miriam Tose Majome IT is a common national habit to turn a blind eye or be very judgmental about problems that we are too uncomfortable to deal with such as unwanted teen pregnancies or the necessity of providing contraceptives to sexually active minors. However, unwanted pregnancies and unwanted children in society do not disappear simply because they are denied, judged or shamed away. It would help if there was more publicly available information about the available alternatives for women who become pregnant when they are not ready for it or who get abandoned and rejected by the fathers of the babies. There would be less illegal abortions, infanticide and dumping of babies if women readily knew the alternatives that are available to them after they give birth and do not want or cannot keep the babies. Young women who get pregnant by mistake often find that they are completely alone and desperate, which motivates them to dump the babies or commit other heinous acts to dispose of the babies. Zimbabwean law strictly outlaws abortion except in three exceptional circumstances, but does not provide alternatives on what to do if the babies are unwanted or the mothers are genuinely incapacitated. Women are forced to look after babies they do not want, including those conceived through rape where they were not able to carry out legally permitted abortions. Abortion is illegal unless the pregnancy poses some danger to the woman’s life such that continuing with it would be fatal or could seriously impair the woman’s physical health. The second instance is if there is a serious risk that the child to be born will have serious permanent physical or mental defects. The third instance is if the foetus was conceived as a result of rape or incest. One of the available alternatives but which is not so well known is to give unwanted babies up for adoption. This is provided for in Section 57 of the Children’s Act. Enquiries into procedures and processes are done through the Department of Social Welfare. The Act does not specify the circumstances under which children may be given up for adoption, but Section 7 may be interpreted to mean that financially incapacitated mothers who are genuinely incapable of providing for their children may do so by seeking help at designated government institutions. The State is thus obliged to provide the relevant support systems to allow impoverished mothers to give their children up for adoption. This option should be widely known and must be transparent, otherwise it is as good as non-existent if the majority of the women who need the service do not know about it Adoption is more common in Zimbabwe than is commonly believed. Traditionally, people have always adopted children albeit informally within communities and families. It is very common in Zimbabwe for children to be raised by parents who are not their biological parents. Formal adoption is much less common, but more people are waking up to it more and increasingly taking it as a viable pathway to parenthood. Ignorance regarding fo