A Nigerian NGO is holding workshops about clandestine abortions. They’re doing good work, but they have a hard road ahead of them. Until abortion, birth control and sexual health education are all legal and accessible, lots of women are going to die. And things are not pretty in Nigeria right now, where illegal abortion constitutes a major public health crisis:
According to the Daily Champion, about 760,000 abortions are performed annually in Nigeria, about 140,000 of which result in hospitalizations from complications. In addition, unsafe abortion is a main contributing factor to Nigeria’s high maternal mortality rate of 800 deaths per 100,000 live births annually, the Daily Champion reports. According to a recent study by CAUP, most women in Nigeria undergo at least one clandestine abortion by age 49.
CAUP Executive Director Boniface Oye-Adeniran at the conference said that a lack of sex education and availability of reproductive health care are contributing to the high number of abortions performed in the country. “These women … continue to die because the society is hypocritical, the laws are restrictive, and [there is] low use of contraceptives and family planning services.” Isaac Adewole, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Ibadan, called on policymakers to review current abortion policies and for improved medical, reproductive and family planning services, the Daily Champion reports.
If anti-choice ideology continues to dictate Nigerian law, those policymakers won’t have much success — but women will continue to be criminalized, maimed and killed. Score one for pro-lifers. Really, you guys should be proud.
Recent Comments