Leaders of the church, along with Catholic activists in Africa, are condemning the government’s attempts to legalize abortion in Nigeria.
Nigerian Health Ministers, Dr. Mukhtar Yawale Muhammad and Dr. Osagie Ehanire, want to “expand access to safe termination of pregnancies” and are pushing for the Penal Code to be revised to allow for the killing of preborn children. Helping them in their effort are abortion-friendly non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and Ipas, an organization that works to expand access to birth control and abortion globally.
Catholic activists associated with CitizenGO Africa argue that preborn babies have the right to life and that Muhammad and Ehanire have “betrayed their duty to protect life.” They want Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to dismiss them, saying that government officials have “aligned themselves with an agenda that seeks to strip Nigeria of its pro-life identity, prioritizing foreign interests over the lives of Nigerian children.”
“This move [to legalize abortion] threatens the lives of millions of unborn children and undermines the laws and the moral foundation of our nation,” the activists said on December 2. “The lives of innocent unborn children are at risk, and the normalization of abortion would mark the beginning of a tragic devaluation of human life in Nigeria.”
Catholic leaders told Crux that the argument that women have the right to kill their preborn children is “wrong” and that no one has the right to end the life of an innocent person.
“This is one of the fundamental principles of the Catholic Social Teaching, respect to human life from conception to natural death, from womb to tomb. This is so because life is sacred, and we all are created in the image and likeness of God, therefore, only God can take life when He so wish,” Josef Ishu, secretary of the Nigerian bishops’ Conference Laity Office told Crux.
Father Zacharia Nyantiso Samjumi, Secretary General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, noted that the ministers are violating Nigeria’s Constitution by pushing for legalized abortion. He said Chapter IV of the Constitution lists fundamental human rights, including the right to life, dignity, and freedom from discrimination.
“It is saddening to know that it is the Government that is so oblivious of the Constitution of the country it solemnly swore to protect because the decisions by the Government contravene the provisions of the Constitutions, which prescribe absolute protection and respect of human life and its inherent dignity. For example, section 33 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, guarantees the right to life, stating that “every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria,” he said.
Obianuju Ekeocha, who was born in Nigeria and is now a biomedical scientist and the founder of Culture of Life Africa, a U.K.-based pro-life group, condemned the Western push for abortion in Africa back in 2016 when she spoke to the United Nations (UN). She told the UN that Ibo, her native language, and “most African languages, don’t even have a way of phrasing having an abortion that means anything good,” adding, “Most of the African communities actually believe by their traditions and their cultural standards that abortion is a direct attack on human life.” She explained that the abortion campaign in Africa is equivalent to telling an African woman “what her parents, her grandparents, her ancestors taught her is actually wrong. You’re going to have to tell her that they have always been wrong, and that… is colonization.”
Though government officials argue that legalizing abortion is necessary to combat the high maternal mortality rate in Nigeria, research shows that there are valid, life-affirming ways to reduce pregnancy-related deaths.
READ: Nigerian bishops warn about EU agreement that could force abortion upon Africa
The Journal of Global Health Reports issued a paper by Beatrice Wuraolo Ope of the Department of Social Statistics and Demography, University of Southampton, in 2020. She said research reveals three forms of delay in maternal care in Nigeria: a delay in making the decision to seek maternal health care, a delay in locating and arriving at a medical facility, and a delay in receiving skilled pregnancy care when a woman does go to a health facility. She does not suggest induced abortion as a means of combating the high maternal mortality rate.
“To address the challenges associated with the three delays which prevent women from receiving adequate timely maternal health care, some studies recommended improving access to skilled birth attendance (SBA) especially through better quality primary health care (PHC),” she wrote. “This is because Nigeria has about 34,000 PHCs (entry point level) covering all health wards and hard-to-reach communities. Hence, improving the accessibility, availability, affordability and care quality in PHCs will most likely reduce the high rate of neonatal and maternal mortality in Nigeria.”
She added, “Another study stated that maternal mortality in Nigeria would reduce if there is an improvement in the quality of care provided within tertiary health facilities (second-level referral). The authors emphasized that the inability to get quality health services in most Nigerian health institutions contribute greatly to the high maternal deaths in the country. Additionally, the WHO associated the high prevalence of maternal death in Nigeria to inequalities in access to health services as women in resource-poor settings are least likely to receive adequate, timely and affordable health services by skilled personnel compared to their counterparts in more developed countries.”
However, she said, even with improved access, the high maternal mortality rate may remain so because of women’s perception about the care they need and because of common cultural practices such as Puddah (female seclusion), in which “women are isolated and encouraged to give birth at home” based on the belief that allowing an outsider to help with delivery would be “disrespectful.”
“In Ota, Ogun State, south-western Nigeria, for instance, several women believe that delivering in a non-institutional setting is better than in a modern facility because traditional birth attendants show more concern and compassion than skilled birth attendants,” she said. “This perhaps shows a clear distinction between actual quality of care provided and perceived quality of care; even if the modern health facilities in Ota have sufficient health experts with internationally recognized good practice, the maternal deaths might still be on the increase, because women’s perception of ‘quality’ influences health service utilization.”
Legalizing induced abortion — the direct and intentional killing of preborn children — is not the solution to high maternal mortality rates. Women and children in Nigeria would benefit from a caring and compassionate health system that meets their needs within their culture.
