Abortion Law in Nigeria; The Silent Assassin
An abortion is a medical procedure that ends a pregnancy. According to Amnesty International, It is a basic healthcare need for millions of women, girls, and others who can become pregnant.
In Nigeria, abortion is legal if it is performed to save the life of the woman, to preserve physical health, and to preserve mental health. The unfortunate scenario is that Nigeria has two abortion laws: one for the northern states and one for the southern states. Both laws religiously permit abortions to be carried out to save the life of the woman.
The Criminal Code is currently enforced in southern states. The abortion laws of the Criminal Code are expressed within sections 228, 229, and 230. [1]
Section 229 states that any woman obtaining a miscarriage is guilty of a felony and may be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 7 years. Section 230 states that anyone supplying anything intended for a woman’s miscarriage is also guilty of a felony and may be sentenced to up to 3 years of imprisonment.
The Penal Code which operates in Northern states, has abortion laws enshrined in sections 232, 233, and 234. The sections of the Penal Code parallel the Criminal Code, besides the exception for abortion with the purpose of saving the life of the mother. The Penal Code’s punishments include imprisonment, fine, or both. The offenses of these codes are punishable regardless of whether the miscarriage was successful. No provisions have been made to the Criminal Code making exceptions for the preservations of the mother’s life. However, the cases of Rex vs Edgar and Rex vs Bourne have made it generally accepted that abortion performed to preserve the mother’s life is not an appropriate transgression of the Criminal Code.[2]
#Facts
Many young women seek unsafe abortion methods to avoid criminal and social penalties, leading to abortion-related complications and increasing mortality and morbidity rates in the country. According to research done by the Guttmacher Institute, an estimated 456,000 unsafe abortions are done in Nigeria every year.[3]
The stiff abortion law in Nigeria forces women to seek out covert and clandestine procedures which inevitably lead to death and loss of the womb. It is time for the abortion law to be repealed in Nigeria.
References
[1]Criminal Code Act Chapter 77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990″
[2]Love Matters (25 June 2020). “Abortion: Types and the Nigerian law”. Love Matters Naija. Retrieved 25 July 2023
[3]. Rachel Ogbu (28 February 2013). “Illegal abortion in Nigeria: The cringing reality”. YNaija. Retrieved 11 August 2022.