With many lives lost daily to unsafe abortions, experts have called on stakeholders in society, especially traditional rulers and religious leaders to collaborate and save young girls from unnecessary death. They made the appeal in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, Southwest Nigeria, on the sideline of the National Forum on Unintended Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria, organised by the Partnership for Advancing Abortion Research and Reducing Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria, held at Kankafo Hotel.
A professor of Demography at the Department of Demography and Social Statistics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Akanni Akinyemi, the call became imperative to reduce the death rate among young girls and women who engage in unsafe abortions. “What we are trying to do is to look into how we can address one of the biggest problems we have around us, which is about young girls and women dying for being pregnant when it was not planned. “Such pregnancy constitutes a problem to a young girl or a married woman. It is a situation that threatens their lives and, you know, we have lost a lot of women due to this. There are things teachers in schools should know; there are things pastors should know; there are things we must be able to discuss among ourselves without government intervention.
“There are things the community should know. If a young boy rapes a girl, we can settle it, not to be thinking about the consequence. Yes, there are issues about the government but it doesn’t start and end with the government. I’m one of those scholars who believe that it is not right to always blame the government for everything.’’ “It is about an individual, the society, community, religious leaders, traditional leaders, then to the government. At each of these levels, we need to come together and speak with one voice, we need to come together and agree that we don’t need to lose our young girls because they had sex or unprotected sex. “We don’t need to lose women because they don’t know the right thing to do. So, we must all collaborate to save them, the traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, in her presentation, the Oyo State Family Planning Coordinator, Adeola Awakan, said the government was trying to ensure family planning was available to all who needed it.
Speaking also, the President of the Population Association of Nigeria, Ebingha Enang, said, “The situation that led to this call for the national forum is that in Nigeria we find ourselves today, the figures before us are more or less alarming, there have been issues on unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion, particularly for our women folks and the carelessness on the part of our adolescents that results in this kind of situation. “So, because of the health hazards and since there have been occurrences, there is the need for this forum to come on board and see how this advocacy can be preached or pursued to the extent that adolescents will understand why this should be reduced and the lives of our women will be saved and guaranteed.” A professor at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ademola Ajuwon, said “Unintended pregnancy is a common phenomenon and a major reproductive health problem in Nigeria. Worldwide, the root cause of unintended pregnancy is the non-use of effective contraception. The rate of unintended pregnancy has not changed in the country in decades, despite increased education and access to methods.”
