The federal government is working towards decriminalising abortion in the country, the director, family health department, federal ministry of health, Dr Binyerem Ukaire has said.
She stated this Thursday in Abuja during the SRHR summit 1.0 organised by the Media Health & Rights Initiative of Nigeria ( MHR) to mark this year’s World Contraception Day. It was themed “A Choice for All: Freedom to Plan, Power to Choose.”
Represented by the head, health promotion department of the ministry, Barrister Nma Ogbonna, she said sections 288 to 290 of the Criminal Code makes abortion a criminal act but that the government and partners are seeing the need not to allow girls and women of reproductive age to continue die in silence.
She said ,” Government is going to make sure that it is no longer a criminal act, because if we go on, even the doctor that performed the act is equally getting up to 14 years imprisonment.”
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She said the health promotion department is working assiduously to educate the populace on sexual reproductive health and rights.
The Executive Secretary, Ogun state primary health care department, Dr Elijah Olushola said over 20% to 30% of maternal deaths in Nigeria is as a result of unsafe abortion amongst adolescents and young people.
He lamented the unavailability of routine data on abortion, adding that there is need for a review of abortion laws in the country.
Dr. Lucky Palmer, the Country Director of IPas Nigeria Health Foundation, said that unplanned pregnancies contribute to over 1,500 maternal deaths annually in Nigeria, adding that they were deaths that could be easily prevented with access to effective contraceptives.
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