Seven months before his firstborn daughter Peris’s wedding, Simon Kurgat, the pastor of Newlife Church in Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya, discovered she was three months pregnant. Kurgat’s wife noticed Peris throwing up her meals, sleeping throughout the day, and complaining of dizziness—then she confronted Peris about it. Kurgat and his wife took Peris to a local clinic for a pregnancy test.
Soon afterward, one of their daughter’s bridesmaids told them Peris had been planning to have an abortion secretly to cover up her pregnancy before the news became public. When they approached Peris, she admitted her fiancé had been pressuring her to have one so they could continue with the church wedding.
In Kenya, formal church weddings are intricate ceremonies that can take two years to plan, with help from the church’s committees and leadership. If the church finds out a couple had sex outside marriage, they typically become ineligible for a church wedding. Canceling the wedding affects everyone involved. Though intended as a form of church discipline, the practice has nudged some couples to consider abortion rather than lose the prestige of a church wedding.
At Kurgat’s request, some senior female leaders at church talked to Peris alongside her parents, convincing her not to get the abortion by explaining the medical risks and that living as faithful Christians is more important than having a church wedding. Several male church leaders also spoke to her fiancé, counseling him to acknowledge his mistake. The church canceled the formal wedding, originally scheduled for last December, but leaders said the couple could still have a civil marriage, which the church would later bless.
“It was painful to see the wedding canceled, but I was happy the abortion was avoided,” Kurgat said.
Eventually, in a stand against cultural expectations, the pastors granted the couple a church wedding after they repented.
Although over 80 percent of Kenyans identify as Christian and a recent court ruling made abortion illegal, it remains a rampant problem in the East African country. Abortion has been illegal in Kenya since colonial times, but courts have debated its legality since the 2010 constitution—opposed by many Christians due to loopholes in the draft—seems to enshrine both the right to life and a right to abortion. Article 26 of the constitution affirms the right to life and its start at conception, yet allows abortion in cases deemed medically necessary and “if permitted by any other written law.” Article 43 recognizes a right to “reproductive health care,” a term often used to include abortion.
In 2020, activists filed a legal petition in the High Court at Malindi after authorities, believing an illegal abortion had occurred, mistakenly arrested a teen girl who had miscarried and the clinician who had treated her. A 2022 High Court ruling then legalized abortions, broadly interpreting constitutional rights such as human dignity (Article 28) and freedom from cruel treatment (Article 25) to declare abortion constitutionally protected. The court also asked Parliament to enact an abortion law and public health framework for legalized abortion for the first time in Kenya’s history.
The State Law Office, Kenya Christian Professionals Forum, and other groups appealed. In April, the Court of Appeal in Kenya overturned the ruling, saying abortion is not a fundamental human right and is allowed only when medical experts determine the mother’s health or life are at risk. Pro-choice advocacy groups have stated they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Kurgat welcomes the ruling on abortion, saying the 14-year prison sentence for abortionists convicted of performing illegal abortions will reduce the practice.
In 2025, the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (KOGS) estimated that 800,000 illegal abortions occur in Kenya each year. According to the Associated Press, “abortion is a leading cause of maternal deaths” in Kenya. Proponents of legalization argue that since abortions are widespread, legalizing the practice would allow women to have them more safely.
Catherine Kageni-Oganga, senior pastor of Sozo Church of God in Nairobi, disagrees. She said the Christian stance is clear: Unborn babies are human beings with the right to live.
“We cannot say that abortion has increased and so it should be lawful,” Kageni-Oganga told CT. “Otherwise, we should then say, ‘Since corruption is so rampant, then let’s legalize it too.’”
According to Kageni-Oganga, the church doesn’t depend on the courts to tell people abortion is murder: “We rely on the Word of God, and that is what we teach.”
KOGS president Kireki Omanwa told TV show Morning Vibe that most induced abortions involved married women—79 percent according to an African Population and Health Research Center report—“a huge portion” of whom identify as Christians. According to Omanwa, this contradicts the notion that only young girls have abortions so they can continue their education.
Kenyan researcher Mary Kinoti found that women with more education were more likely to seek abortions. Kinoti also indicated Christian-identifying women—as many as 9 percent in some places surveyed—sought abortions, often for unplanned pregnancies or medical concerns, such as the mother’s health or fetal abnormalities. Kinoti noted the prevalence of abortion among Christians suggests “a disconnect between doctrine and theory of the church, and the actual praxis by believers when confronted with the reality of abortion.”
While the majority of women surveyed favored adoption over abortion, Kinoti wondered whether in practice many unmarried women would not choose to place their babies for adoption due to the stigma of carrying to term.
Parents of unmarried couples who become pregnant face stigma too, leading them to pressure their children to get abortions quietly. Kurgat said the parents of Peris’s fiancé had pressured him to sway Peris toward abortion, likely due to stigma and the embarrassment of canceling a church wedding. Kurgat also felt judgment from the Christian community: He said many criticized him, calling him a hypocritical pastor because his daughter got pregnant out of wedlock.
“When we canceled the wedding, I became the topic of the day,” Kurgat said. “They thought I was ashamed.”
Kurgat said he wasn’t ashamed but did feel depressed for several weeks after learning Peris was pregnant, wondering how he would handle it once the news spread on social media. He decided to speak about it in Sunday service, apologizing to his community, asking them to forgive the young couple, and challenging them to think about whether the church is doing enough to address this common issue.
Kurgat explained that many Christians see a church wedding as a holy event that indicates a girl has remained pure, leading to higher dowries, or “bride prices,” from the groom’s family. By having a child outside of marriage, a woman loses the community’s respect and often struggles to find a husband if the baby’s father abandons her. Churches may not consider such couples eligible for even a small church wedding again until they are much older and have completed the church’s repentance services and marriage classes. Kurgat said some pastors take bribes from couples who want to circumvent the process.
At Newlife Church, leaders have changed their approach to the traditional rules.
Moses Wamalwa, bishop at Newlife Church, said many Christians are placing too much emphasis on where they get married, as good and bad marriages can come out of both church and civil weddings—and covering up premarital sex with an abortion is worse than having the child out of wedlock.
“Having a big wedding in church does not make one holier than the one who gave birth,” he added.
Wamalwa also explained his concern that many men who father children outside of marriage dodge the consequences by leaving their home churches for others farther way, where members don’t know about their past, so they can have church weddings with other women.
“Yet women are looked [at] as sinners and cannot be wedded because they have a child,” Wamalwa said. He believes this causes many women to have abortions rather than face the stigma alone. “We should not look at them as sinners but rather show them love.”
For Christians and pastors, the tension remains between protecting unborn lives and maintaining consequences for sexual sin. Churches don’t always respond with grace.
Ann Mukongo, 45, a teacher in Bungoma County, recalled how her father, a leader in the Anglican church, kicked her out of the house after she got pregnant in college: “My father had high hopes [for] me because I was the favorite daughter. When I got pregnant, he refused to allow me back to the church.”
Mukongo joined another church and gave birth to two more children from two different men, both churchgoers she thought would marry her. After these disappointments, she decided to remain single: “I gave up in life and decided to remain a single mother but a committed Christian.”
For Kurgat’s family, the church found a balance between truth and mercy. Leaders urged the young couple to repent of having sex before their marriage and seeking an abortion. Kurgat said Peris’s fiancé had feared the church would banish him or call him names after discovering his sexual relationship with Peris. Instead, the church counseled him to recognize his mistake and repent, prayed with him, and told him he could remain as a member.
In February, after Peris gave birth to their daughter, the leadership organized a wedding in church for the two of them, during which the couple publicly requested and received forgiveness from the congregation.
Kurgat uses his family’s story to teach parents how to better guide their children. He reminds them abortion is a sin, not a solution to keep up the appearance of holiness or to preserve a colorful church wedding. Kurgat said the congregation has received this message positively.
Newlife Church has also started monthly seminars to help youth understand marriage is about not just the wedding but also the process of living a Christian life together. Leaders split the youth into groups for males and females, then teach on repentance, abstinence, faith, love, and methods to deal with sexual temptation.
“Many young men and women have ended up abandoning the church because of the stigma. [But] we need them in the church,” Kurgat said. “God does not look at our past sins but the heart that repents.”
