Sierra Leone backs bill to legalise abortion and end colonial-era law

Sierra Leone backs bill to legalise abortion and end colonial-era law

Country hails ‘monumental step’ towards expanding reproductive rights at a time when the US has overturned them

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President Julius Maada Bio with Åsa Regnér (left), deputy executive director of UN Women, and Oulimata Sarr, regional director of UN Women West and Central Africa at State House, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photograph: Courtesy of Office of Presidency

Emmanuel Akinwotu, west Africa correspondent
Wed 6 Jul 2022 07.57 EDT
Last modified on Wed 6 Jul 2022 08.04 EDT

Ministers in Sierra Leone have taken a major step towards decriminalising abortion and overturning the country’s colonial-era law, in a move hailed by campaigners and women’s rights activists. President Julius Maada Bio said his cabinet had unanimously backed a bill on risk-free motherhood, which would expand access to abortion in a country where terminations are only permitted when a mother’s life is at risk. After years of work by government officials and a broad coalition of women’s rights groups, the provisions of a safe motherhood and reproductive health bill have been approved by cabinet ministers. Campaigners hope the bill, which is now being drafted, will be submitted to parliament by September and passed this year.

“At a time when sexual and reproductive health rights for women are either being overturned or threatened, we are proud that Sierra Leone can once again lead with progressive reforms,” said President Bio, referring to the US supreme court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, which has drawn criticism around the world. “My government has unanimously approved a safe motherhood bill that will include a range of critical provisions to ensure the health and dignity of all girls and women of reproductive age in this country,” Bio said at the 10th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in the country’s capital, Freetown, on Friday.

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“We know that decriminalisation of abortion will not make it accessible to everyone who needs one overnight, and the stigma within our communities remains. The government now must ensure that the law is fully implemented, including with new guidelines on abortion provision, training for healthcare providers, procurement of abortion medication and funding,” they said.
Josephine Kamara, a feminist activist from Sierra Leone, said: “This is a landmark moment for girls and women in this country, and it shows we are now building a world where we can live in the most basic of dignities: to make choices over our own bodies.

“As a teenager, I nearly bled to death after a backstreet abortion. Let this generation be the last to experience the horrors of what happens when women’s most basic reproductive health needs are pushed underground.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/06/sierra-leone-backs-bill-to-legalise-abortion-and-end-colonial-era-law