Police in Makassar, South Sulawesi have arrested a 26-year-old woman following the shocking discovery of seven aborted fetuses in her room.
They were all hers, police said.
According to reports, the suspect, a hospital employee identified by her initials NM, had vacated her room in a boarding house owned by Nulfah Anugrahwaty for the past six months, as she was struggling to pay rent.
On Saturday, Nulfah set out to clean NM’s room and was overcome by a foul stench coming from several shoe boxes, which were fully covered with tape, in a corner of the room.
When she and her husband opened the boxes, they found the remains of the aborted fetuses and immediately alerted the neighborhood chief and local police. Forensics found that there were seven fetuses in the boxes.
Police yesterday located and arrested NM in Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi and are taking her to Makassar for the investigation. Her boyfriend was arrested separately in South Kalimantan.
To the police, NM confessed that she and her boyfriend self-terminated her pregnancies on seven different occasions since 2012, with the latest abortion carried out this year. She said she drank an unspecified concoction to terminate her pregnancies and was assisted by her boyfriend to extract the fetuses.
NM said she and her boyfriend carried out the abortions to avoid the shame of her getting pregnant out of wedlock.
Police say they are trying to determine why NM chose to keep the aborted fetuses in her room instead of burying them somewhere less conspicuous. They have not announced specific charges against NM and her boyfriend.
Abortion is illegal in Indonesia except in certain special circumstances, such as in cases where the pregnancy resulted from a rape or threatens the life of the mother. Without safe, legal abortion clinics to turn to, women are often desperate enough carry out their own abortions, often resulting in severe injuries or worse.
Also Read — University student in S. Sumatra found dead after alleged abortion attempt
