This report investigates the enduring colonial legacies of criminalisation and incarceration in shaping sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Zimbabwe, primarily while drawing lessons and comparisons from Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda. It focuses specifically on abortion, infanticide, sex work, and the existence of lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women, examining how law and carceral practices continue to structure women’s and girls’ lives. The findings underscore a central paradox: criminalisation, incarceration, and the ever-present threat of imprisonment do not deter abortion, infanticide, sex work, or same-sex
relations. Instead, these laws reproduce and magnify the very social harms they purport to address, exacerbating maternal mortality, poverty, violence, and marginalisation.