Liberian Women Demand Safe Abortion Rights, Abolition Of FGM

Joy ChukwuJuly 23, 20241 Mins read216

Liberian women have demanded the right to have abortions for safety and health purposes, New Dawn reported on Tuesday. Abortion in Liberia is illegal except in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormality, or risk to the woman’s physical or mental health.

West Point Women for Health and Development, a nonprofit organisation based in West Point Township, Montserrado County, called on the Boakai-Koung administration to grant safe abortion rights to Liberian women. They also called for the abolition of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the country.

During a day-long seminar with women and girls in Montserrado County, Nelley Cooper, the Executive Director of the pro-women organisation, emphasised the need for a national safe abortion centre, stating that countless women and girls have lost their lives in the pursuit of safe abortions.

Madam Cooper argued that abortion will continue to occur regardless of whether it is legalised or not, hence the need to provide a safe environment for these procedures, managed by professionals.

Addressing the issue of FGM, Dr Henry Gbolee, a facilitator at the seminar, lamented that the traditional practice of female circumcision has caused more harm than good. He explained that doctors and nurses have frequently encountered severe bleeding problems in pregnant women during delivery, attributing many of these complications and deaths to female circumcision.

Dr Gbolee stated that the majority of deaths during childbirth are linked to these traditional practices, noting that they must be stopped to avoid more unnecessary deaths of women and girls in the country.

Internationally recognised as a human rights violation, female genital mutilation (FGM) – the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs – is a serious reproductive health concern, according to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).

UNFPA estimated that some 200 million girls and women globally have undergone some form of female genital mutilation. In Africa, women are subjected to female genital mutilation in 28 countries.

West Africa Weekly recently reported that in a third and final reading, the Gambian parliament rejected a bill against lifting the ban on FGM, which has been illegal since 2015 but is still widely practiced.

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