NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A Kenyan court has sentenced a 41-year-old nurse to death for assisting a young woman to get an abortion which killed her.

A judge ruled Thursday that Jackson Namunya Tali was guilty of murdering Christine Atieno, who bled to death following a botched abortion in July 2009.

The judge ruled that “the accused person killed two people” and should “suffer death.”

Abortion is a highly divisive subject in this socially conservative East African country.

Abortions are illegal under current law, but hundreds of thousands of women still seek them each year.

The existing law, however, does allow a doctor to perform an abortion if a woman’s life is in danger.

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