(IPS) feature

- By the time Janice, a Filipino domestic worker in Malaysia, found out she was pregnant, her partner, a fellow Filipino worker, had returned to the Philippines.

In anguish and feeling lost, she turned to a Chinese Malaysian friend who recommended someone who could terminate her pregnancy. In the end, she got her abortion.

Janice is not alone. There are others like her, but their stories do not get much press - migrant workers are not expected to get pregnant while working in Malaysia. And because such cases rarely make the news, many assume they do not happen.

But Katie and Connie (not their real names), Filipinos who have worked as domestic help in Penang for about seven years, each say they personally know of one domestic worker who has resorted to abortion. ''We have heard of several other cases,'' says Katie.

Dr Sim-Poey Choong, a former president of the Federation of Family Planning Associations Malaysia, agrees that pregnancies among foreign migrant workers do occur and that many of them end up resorting to abortions.

Under Malaysian law, the termination of pregnancy is only legally possible if continuance would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or injury to her mental or physical health. In practice, much depends on the individual doctor's discretion, and how 'injury to mental health' is interpreted.

''Abortions are widely available in Malaysia although they are rarely done in government hospitals,'' a doctor who performs these procedures explains. Indeed, it is a sensitive issue in Malaysia's multi-religious society that is rarely discussed in the mainstream media.

But according to the doctor, about 80 percent of gynaecologists in private hospitals and maternity homes in Penang would do abortions. In addition, some 25 percent of general practitioners in Penang handle the occasional case, he figures. Migrant workers interviewed also say they know of several places where abortion procedures can be done.

Charges for the termination of a pregnancy range from RM100 to RM300 (US$26 to US$79).

Fear of termination

One clinic in Penang that performs abortions on women between one to three months pregnant handles about 30 such cases involving migrant workers monthly.

Most of these are Indonesians, who make up the bulk of the migrant workers in Malaysia, but there are about ''five or six cases'' involving Filipinos, adds the doctor at this clinic. There are some 30,000 Filipinos, most of them women domestic worlers, in Malaysia.

If the pregnancy is beyond three months, the women usually check into private maternity homes, which have more sophisticated facilities and where they can stay overnight.

One of the key reasons prompting migrant workers to seek abortions is the fear of termination of their employment contracts and deportation. ''The main reason is they want to keep the job,'' says Choong. Some workers say their contract states that they cannot become pregnant during service in factories or in domestic work.

They can, of course, choose to break their contracts and go home. The reality is much more daunting though. ''Very often, the pregnancy is the result of an extra-marital affair,'' notes Choong. For many married Filipino workers, returning home pregnant would mean shame, being seen as betraying the home and perhaps the break-up of their marriages.

Choong says that while some women migrant workers have relationships with other workers, ''sometimes it is with their employer, willing or unwilling''.

''Much also depends on the attitude of the employer,'' he says of how the issue of pregnancy is addressed. Some employers assist their workers in obtaining abortions. That works as long as their mandatory government medical check-ups, required yearly, are not around the corner.

Breach of contract?

Employers' attitudes about migrant workers getting pregnant vary. ''I would be horrified and disappointed (if my household worker got pregnant),'' says Carole. ''It would be a pretty silly thing for them to do as they have their own families back home. But I wouldn't dump her on the streets. I would try to help.''

Many other employers are under the impression that domestic workers are not supposed to have boyfriends while working in Malaysia.

So is pregnancy really a breach of contract? After Sunday mass interspersed with lively Filipino songs at a church here in Penang, Marie, a domestic worker, pulls out a clutch of papers from her handbag. ''There, these are my employment papers,'' she says.

Among the sheets is an official-looking ''Standard Employment Contract for Filipino Household Workers'', issued by the Philippines' Department of Labour and Employment. It is signed by the employer and the worker.

The clause allowing the employer to terminate the contract merely states that this can be done if the worker displays ''wilful disobedience'' or ''serious misconduct'' or dishonesty, ''habitually neglects duties'', or ''violates law of Malaysia''. Cynically, Marie suggests, ''I suppose pregnancy falls under 'serious misconduct'.''

But there is the immigration department to consider. When contacted, a senior officer in the Penang immigration department said that if the department is informed about a case, it would take action. In any case, if a pregnancy is detected during a migrant worker's mandatory annual check-up, then she is deemed ''unfit'' to work and would either be sent back or not have her contract extended.

Maternity leave, it would seem, is not part of their contracts.

''Usually, when they come to me, they have thought over the problem,'' says the same doctor who performs abortions. ''Some of them regret it because they are forced by circumstances. Some are relieved because often, their pregnancies are unwanted.''

He adds, ''The Filipinos tend to be the most distressed as they are Roman Catholics,'' a religion that forbids abortions.

Support network need

Says Ophel Low, coordinator of the Penang Pilipino Support Group, a church-based support group for Filipino migrant workers: ''Most of the Filipinas with relationships in Malaysia are actually married in the Philippines. And many of the ones who get pregnant are already married.''

That married Filipino women are said to be more likely to have relationships here is something that irks the single women, remark Katie and Connie, as they feel their choice of Filipinos in Malaysia becomes even more limited. ''They are taking all the single Filipinos,'' quips Connie.

The men they date - the domestic workers refer to them as their 'husbands' - tend to be Filipino migrant workers in Malaysia, many of whom spend long spells at sea working aboard cargo ships and fishing boats, usually Taiwanese-owned.

What comes through all these conversations is that foreign migrant workers often lack a social life and support network when they come here. Still, the Filipinos are better off than the Indonesians, as they usually have a church-based support network with fellow workers in the major urban centres.

''There is no doubt that migrant workers need more social support centres where they can come together,'' Choong points out. Such centres, he suggests, could have counsellors talk to migrant workers and provide sex and reproductive health education.