Stakeholders, including clerics, parents and youths, have called on Nigerians and governments at all levels to say no to illegal abortion and its funding.
The stakeholders made the call while speaking in separate interviews in Ibadan on Tuesday.
Most Rev. Emmanuel Badejo, President, Pan African Episcopal Committee for Communications for The Bishops of Africa (CEPACS), says in every abortion, human life is terminated.
According to Badejo, who is also the Catholic Bishop of Oyo Diocese, abortion is a crime and can never be a constitutional or human right.
“In fact, I call abortion a ‘constitutional wrong’; one can only see insensitivity in any leader or government that funds abortion in Nigeria or in Africa.
“It must either be that such government or leader is completely disconnected from the reality or that powerful interests benefiting from the crime are pushing such government or leaders.
“Our cultures and religions support life, not killing.
“Africa and Nigeria need funding for education, good infrastructure, good healthcare and jobs. To starve these critical areas, which improve the quality of life, of funds and then fund abortion can only be wicked and evil.
“The striking down of the 50-year-old ‘Roe and Wade’ in the United States of America has energised the pro-life movement all over the world. More importantly, it has reversed a grave institutionalised injustice and crime against humanity.
“Human life is equally sacred, but millions of children have already been murdered under the law. May they rest in peace and may God have mercy,” he said.
Badejo remarked that women needed to be taught that pregnancy was not a disease and the unborn baby not an aggressor.
He added that women deserved to be given good education, good health services and employment.
According to him, maternal health should be given priority, along with sincere and counselling services, including information on how to put children up for adoption or welfare.
“Even now, many credible people will like to adopt children, but are not able to. Women who cannot support the children they have conceived need this kind of support, not abortion.
“They need to know that there is no such thing as safe abortion. It is certainly never safe for the baby or for the prospective mother who suffers great trauma, a huge sense of guilt and medical complications that follow.
“These risks have to be revealed to women in a sincere way. It is the pharmaceutical companies and unscrupulous medical personnel who gain from abortion.
“Parents should actually parent their children. They should be alert and resist whatever can ruin the lives of their wards. Youths should also be taught and encouraged to live disciplined and morally-upright lives,” he said.
The Catholic bishop said that a country like Nigeria, with majority Christian and Muslim population, should not be seen to accommodate abortion, which neither of the two religions support.
“Religious institutions and stakeholders should live up to their moral responsibilities by working for a morally- upright society. We all are stakeholders in building such a society. We all will benefit from it,” Badejo said.
To Bishop of Ibadan Anglican Diocese, Most Rev. Joseph Akinfenwa, abortion is wrong, adding that sanctity of life must be maintained.
Akinfenwa said that women in developing countries, such as Nigeria, could be helped through empowerment, education and enlightenment.
He stressed the need for the people, including parents, to take sex education very seriously, explaining, however, that sex should be for married couples, while pre-marital sex should be discouraged.
“Also, religious leaders should always preach the fear of God, to constant remind people to respect life, which only Him can give.
“We should learn to preserve life, so as to avoid the wrath of God,” he said.
Similarly, Very Rev. Olayinka Akande, Presbyter, Methodist Cathedral, Agbeni, Ibadan, noted that the Bible consistently proclaims the utmost importance of protecting life in the womb.
This portrayal, he said, could be found in both the Old Testament and New Testament, especially in Psalms 51 and139; even in the life of Jesus, while resting in Mary’s womb as found in Luke 1.
According to him, in Jeremiah 1:4-5 and Isaiah 49:1b, God clearly emphasises the value of life in the womb and His compassionate care for the pre-born.
“Both passages are similar, as each prophet reflects on his call from heaven. Jeremiah and Isaiah consistently heard from the Lord and were used as mouthpieces to His people.
“They both had long lasting personal relationship with God and claimed they were appointed to complete kingdom work while in the womb.
“So, from God’s perspective, there is no barrier between pre-natal and post-natal life. God sees life from the moment of conception,” he said.
Akande said that the Biblical idea that God could form personal relationships with His people in the womb was another evidence that pre-born children possessed full personhood.
The Methodist cleric said that from both the earthly and Biblical points of view, anti-abortion, and not abortion, should be legalised.
Meanwhile, an elderly man, Mr Francis Oghuma, described the attempt to fund illegal abortion as funding and fuelling illicit sex, prostitution and related vices at all levels.
“Africa is a place of values; it is exceptional. So illegally funding abortion hereto is not an African style. It must, therefore, be seen as absurd and criminal.
“Overturning the Roe v Wade is necessary, because it would have further deteriorated family ties, partners’ trust and promise, sexual abuses, while reducing pregnancy to naught.
“The impact of its overturn is further making abortion illegal and strengthening reproduction integrity and values,” he said.
Oghuma said that rather than funding or legalising abortion, continuous amendment of rights of women at all facets of the polity was germane.
He advocated for women and mothers’ empowerment, social security, welfarism for under-age children and maternal care.
Oghuma advised governments, religious leaders, parents and concerned stakeholders to ensure that sexual relationship and intimacy remained sacred.
“The major cause of abortion is projection or inability to cater for children and non-acceptability of unwanted pregnancy as well as stigmatisation of same in a society, which regards them as bastards.
“So, there is the need for sensitisation on a child’s right to live.
Also, Mrs Grace Olubunmi, while affirming that abortion should not be legalised, advised both the married and singles to curb illicit sex.
According to Olubunmi, the foetus or embryo has the right to live.
“God wants humans to multiply, but through lawful or legalised union.
“We cannot, because of incest and rape, legalise abortion. Rather, its prevention should be legalised.
“Lots of talents and great presidents of nations will end up being victims of abortion, if it is legalised,” she said.
The case is not different for the youth.
One of them, Miss Surprise Omolara, said abortion should not be legalised, because of its many negative effects, such as causing premature deaths and damage to wombs.
“Sometimes ago, I heard that a bill was passed concerning illegal abortion. I was happy with the move, because the fear of going to jail will make youths to desist from having premature sex. Even if they must do it, it will be with protection.
“Many people are now regretting due to the abortion they did in the past. If eventually they escaped death, they might now be battling with infection or inability to conceive due to the use of quack doctors or unsterilised equipment.
“Prostitution will also reduce if abortion is eradicated, because if they start getting pregnant without means of aborting it, the shame will make others to stop such practice,” she said.
NAN recalls that IPAS, an international non-profit advocacy group, seeking to improve and expand women’s sexual and reproductive rights, recently disclosed that despite Nigeria’s restrictive abortion law, over two million abortions occur annually.
“The Abortion Law in the country permits abortion, only to save a woman’s life, making it restrictive and inaccessible to many women.
“The fact that abortion is legally restrictive in the country has not stopped the large number of abortion procedures.
“Many women end up in the hands of quacks; some die in the process, while many are permanently maimed due to unsafe abortion.
“To quote a past President of International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, our women are not dying, because of untreatable diseases, but they are dying because the society has yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving,” the Country Director of IPAS, Mr Lucky Palmer, had said.
