Women groups protest Lagos continuous suspension of safe termination of pregnancy

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In protest against the delay in lifting the suspension on safe termination of pregnancy in Lagos State, about 150 women groups across various rights and civil society organisations took to the streets to make their grievance known to government.

The Lagos State government had through the Ministry of Health developed a policy document on safe termination of pregnancy in a bid to guide healthcare providers within the state to provide safe and lawful abortion services within the ambit of the law.

The 40-page policy document, tagged ‘Lagos State Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications’ sets out guidelines for safe termination of pregnancy within the ambit of the criminal law of Lagos State and it was born out of the need to provide evidence-based data and information for health workers in public and private sectors who have the requisite skills and training necessary to provide safe terminations to reduce preventable deaths.

According to the government, the process to develop the guidelines commenced in 2018 with the Safe Engage project led by the Lagos Ministry of Health and hosted by the Society for Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Nigeria (SOGON), with support from the Population Reference Bureau (PRB).

The guideline was intended to build the capacity of health professionals to identify pregnancies for which legal termination could be instituted. Marie Stopes International in Nigeria in collaboration with the Population Reference Bureau proposed to support the State government to adopt the document but it was later suspended.

When the government failed to promptly lift the suspension as requested by the women group, they wrote a petition to the Lagos State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, demanding that he lifts the suspension of the regulation.

And when the petition did not yield expected results, they embarked on a march through Obafemi Awolowo way in their large numbers to Alausa, Ikeja singing solidarity songs and passing a message to Governor Sanwo-Olu to protect their lives.

While they were unable to have audience with the governor and the Commissioner for Health, a Director from the Office of Civic Engagement, Mr. Haruna Ayodeji received an open letter from them for onwards transmission to the governor.

Speaking on behalf of the women, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) said that it had been brought to their knowledge that unsafe termination of pregnancy accounts for second leading cause of maternal deaths in Nigeria.

She stated that the ‘Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications’ placed on suspension is a timely intervention for reducing preventable deaths and protecting women’s reproductive rights, adding that government was misadvised to suspend the regulation.

The women believe that continuous delay in lifting the guidelines launched by the government on June 29, 2022 will encourage unsafe abortion in the state, adding that refusal to lift the suspension may lead to a situation that will do grave harm to women’s health as “unsafe termination of pregnancy accounts for second leading cause of maternal deaths in Nigeria.”

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