By Josephine Agbonkhese

The Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre, WARDC, yesterday, flagged off its much-anticipated Pink Movement, a campaign initiative seeking the reinstatement of the suspended Lagos State Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indication.

An initiative supported by over 150 women groups, the flag off, which was the climax of a webinar organised by WARDC, was preceded by a Signature Launch which saw hundreds of supporters sign up to a petition demanding the reinstatement of the suspended guidelines.

Recall that on June 29th, 2022, the Lagos State Government presented and launched a 40-page policy document titled ‘Lagos State Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indication’, to set out guidelines for safe termination of pregnancy within the ambit of Lagos State Criminal Law.

On July 8, 2022, the document was, however, suspended by the state government due to pushbacks by some religious groups.

Calling on the Lagos State government to revisit the guidelines, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Founder, WARDC, decried that, for many years, Nigeria had hidden behind one finger when it comes to safe abortion, leading to a lot of avoidable deaths.

“Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the whole world. It also has one of the highest incidence of sexual violence. In fact, 10% of global maternal deaths are from Nigeria.

“We are not asking for unbridled abortion. What we are asking for is for victims of rape, incest and women with chronic health conditions such as chronic pelvic pain, uterine perforation, pelvic inflammatory diseases, and others, to be able to decide whether or not they want to keep a pregnancy.

“We cannot continue to keep quiet. Women and girls should be able to make a choice as to what to do with their body.

“Benin Republic is close to us. As of today, Benin has made an exception to their criminal law to allow for safe abortion in circumstances of rape and incest, and when there are diseases threatening the mental and physical health of a woman.

“Lagos State also added in it guidelines mental and physical health. So, this is not in any way unlawful; and I think anyone who is a victim of gang rape or incest should be qualified for the waiver of mental health.

“Ogun State recently adopted this guideline which, actually, is also present at the national level.
The Pink Movement is starting from Lagos State and it is going to go round to other parts of the country because we can no longer keep quiet.

“Everyday, a child is being gang-raped, a newborn baby is kept on the road, people are being stigmatised,” Akiyode-Afolabi elaborated.

On her part, Ngozi Nwosu-Juba, human rights activists and Project Director, Vision Spring Initiatives, argued that conversations around rape, incest and abortion should not be around religion or cultural norms but around human rights and dignity as expressed in the documents and commitments Nigeria has made.

“Nigeria, for instance, has committed to Beijing and the International Conference on Population & Development,” she said.

Alluding a 12-year-old’s near-death experience while trying to deliver a baby, Juba said victims of incest and rape are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies because access to safe abortion is outlawed.

“Children are unable to access safe abortion in Nigeria. What this does is that these children are forced to carry the pregnancy and have the child even as minors, when they could have been given the option of deciding whether to keep the pregnancy or not.

“In other circumstances, these women and girls go to quacks, and this often times ends up a disaster,”

Also urging the Lagos State government to reinstate the suspended guidelines, Dr Kehinde Okunade, General Secretary and Project Coordinator, Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, SOGON, Lagos Sector, said it was high time government woke up to preventing women from dying from unsafe abortion.

Okunade also disclosed that SOGON, as a body, was also considering the aspect of self-care intervention for unwanted pregnancies.

“We are also looking at the aspect of self-care intervention which will allow women access services and procure prescriptions by healthcare professionals. This will reduce the need for surgical intervention,” he said.