The Catholic Church, prolife crusaders and other concerned Nigerians have condemned the move by the Lagos State Government to legalize the procurement of abortion through legislative guidelines in the state,as they vowed to resist the move in its totality. The people noted that the argument by the State Ministry of Health for giving guidelines for the termination of pregnancy on health grounds was nothing but a means of legalising abortion through the backdoor, as they added that the move is not only unjustifiable, but unacceptable, and that the guidelines are nothing but a way of creating room for indiscriminate procurement of abortion, especially by young people in the state. The whole saga started on Wednesday, June 29, 2023, when the State Government, through Dr. Olusegun Ogboye, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, unveiled a 40-page policy document, tagged “Lagos State guidelines on safe termination of pregnancy for legal indications.” The document sets out guidelines for safe termination of pregnancy within the ambit of the criminal law of the state.
The Permanent Secretary explained that the policy document focuses on 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 termination of pregnancy, to reduce preventable deaths. Reacting, and condemning the move, Most Rev. (Dr.) Alfred Adewale Martins, Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, in a statement signed by Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu, Director of Social Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, said as reported, it is untrue that all stakeholders were consulted in the process of drawing up the guidelines. He stated that the issue of abortion touches very much on ethical and religious sensibilities and religious bodies were not consulted. “Certainly the millions of Catholics who have always maintained their strong opposition to legalisation of abortion in any guise were not consulted”, he added. According to him, the baby in the womb is a person that is distinct from the mother, even though he is in the mother’s womb, and so, not even the mother has the right to kill him, talk less of the government purporting to give legal backing for their murder.

The Prelate said: “The Catholic Church and all ethically-minded people oppose all forms of abortion procedures whose direct purpose is to terminate the life of a baby in the womb. The unborn child has the right to live and be protected and not to be killed by the fiat of an unjust law. We believe strongly that every human life must be respected and protected, especially the most vulnerable ones in the womb from the moment of their conception. “There is nothing like an unwanted child because every child is a gift from God that should be nurtured and allowed to grow in fulfillment of their purpose in life. We need to continue to explore ways of providing support for those women who find themselves in difficulty as a result of their pregnancy rather than thinking of aborting a child who is innocent of the difficulty that the mother may be going through. Any attempt to terminate the life of the unborn child is tantamount to murder and should be treated as a capital offence. Our focus, therefore, should be on proper enlightenment on human sexuality and collaboration, in order to support women who fall pregnant without being ready for the pregnancy.” He wondered why the Lagos State Government seemed anxious to legalise abortion, at a time when even the United States of America and other more advanced countries are reviewing their positions on legalisation of abortion as seen in the recent judgement of the Supreme Court of the United States of America on the matter.
The Archbishop called on Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of the Lagos Stateto use his good office to call the Ministry of Health to order and stop the implementation of the guidelines on the so-called safe termination of pregnancies, as he added that the ministry did not consult wide enough to find the best approach to safeguarding the lives of pregnant women, which the guidelines were supposed to protect. In his reaction, Most Rev. Emmanuel Badejo, Catholic Bishop of Oyo Diocese,said that by virtue of Section 17 and Items 60 and 68 of the Exclusive Legislative List read along with Paragraph 2(a) of Part III of the 2nd Schedule to the Constitution, as well as the National Health Act, 2014, only the National Assembly is competent to legislate or otherwise enact a policy on abortion. Condemning the move, Engr. Jerry Okwuosa, Anti-abortion crusader, said the government is trying to make abortion efficient for rape and such matters,adding that theNigerian law does not permit any exceptions in the matter of abortion. According to him, “The Nigerian law condemns abortion in its totality. In some other countries, they have laws making allowance for cases of rape, incest and the woman’s health being involved and all that. But in Nigeria, there is no such exception. That’s a fundamental error that the Lagos State Government is making.
Every life matters.” He saidthat in treating a pregnant woman, the doctor must be aware that he is treating two patients; the woman and the baby, and everything must be done to save the life of the mother and the baby. He noted that in the situation of an ectopic pregnancy, there is no chance of the baby surviving in the fallopian tube because that is a wrong place for a baby to form. He said: “We understand that in the situation of an ectopic pregnancy, if the pregnancy is allowed to continue, the baby will die, the fallopian tube will burst, and the mother will die. If it’s a case of cancer of the uterus, the normal procedure is to remove the uterus so as to save the woman from the cancer spreading. In that case, it’s not what you would call an abortion. Thatis the normal procedure for treating cancer of the uterus. If the woman was not pregnant, that’s exactly what the doctor will do. But in the case of incest, you are now going to kill a baby because of a crime committed by a father he may never see. If God who gives life did not want that baby to be conceived, it will not be conceived.” He said that what theLagos State Government need to bear in mind when they are compiling anything, is that the Nigerian law does not make any exception for abortion to be legal in Nigeria. He said: “People are not conscious of it as they assume that in so many other countries there is exception for incidents of rape and incest among others, but Nigerian law does not make allowance for such exceptions; that’s what people don’t seem to know. But even in those countries where there is exception for incest and rape andallthat, the baby in the womb was conceived just like every one of us, and it should not pay a death penalty for a crime it did not commit. It is not fair for the baby to suffer death as a result of an infraction that was committed by somebody else. It’s not right, whether it’s incest or rape. He reiterated that any doctor treating a pregnant woman must realise that there are two patients and both lives are equally important. “That is the way every body’s life started. That is the way the life of that mother started in her own mother’s womb. These are the things people have to bear in mind when they are talking about abortion, incest and others.
In a Television interview with Arise Archbishop Martins, Bishop Badejo, others… news, Mr. Sonny Ekwowusi, lawyer, anti-abortionist and Chairman Human and Constitutional Rights Committee, African Bar Association said people should be concerned about the unborn child and its human rights in the same way they treat the life of an adult and the human rights of the adult because the unborn are the future of tomorrow. The Lagos Archdiocesan Catholic Men Organization, LACMON condemned the move,as Barr. Vincent Otiono, President, LACMON, said the directive by Lagos State Government on safe abortion is totally unacceptable as stakeholders, such as Churches, Mosques, traditional rulers, anti-abortion legal practitioners and medical practitioners, parents, educators and concerned citizens were never consulted or invited in fashioning acceptable abortion guidelines. Quoting His Holiness, Pope Francis, Otiono opined that “abortion is like hiring a hit-man to resolve a problem. It is not right in any form to eliminate a human life to resolve a problem.”
He said abortion can damage the long term physical and emotional health of women who terminate pregnancies, as it violates core feminist principles of justice, non – violence and non-discrimination” Advising the government to make necessary consultations with stakeholders on the issue, he termed the move as a selfish plot that will give advantage to some people to continue to exploit women. He urged the government to focus more on providing adequate security for all in the state instead of attempting to make laws encouraging the killing of innocent souls in the womb.