“Clearly forbidden”: Religious Leaders in Sierra Leone Oppose Government Plan to Legalize Abortion

They want mechanisms put in place to enhance access to “family planning” in the country.

Those advocating for the Bill also want structures put in place to improve the education, training and skills of health professionals including allied health professionals “to ensure effective delivery of quality safe motherhood and sexual and reproductive health care services throughout Sierra Leone.”

In the statement shared with ACI Africa on Friday, December 20, the IRCSL faults the use of certain phrases in the Bill, including “family planning” and “sexual and reproductive health service”. He says that “family planning”, for instance, mentions the ability to decide on the desired number of children, their timing and spacing, a phrase which they say is sometimes interpreted as including the right to abortion.

The inter-religious council headed by Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles of Sierra Leone’s Catholic Archdiocese of Freetown notes that the phrase “sexual and reproductive health services” mentioned throughout the Bill is also synonymous to abortion.

According to the members of IRCSL who include the Catholic Church, abortion goes against both Islam and Christianity, the two main religious sects in the country which forbid killing.

“A fetus is a human organism, and if unimpeded in its development, will grow and mature into an adult human and sufficiently develop to be considered a person,” the religious leaders say.  

They add, “Central to the position on abortion, is the issue of whether it is ever acceptable to kill another person and whether the rights of one person, such as a mother, can trump the rights of another, such as a fetus, and whether human life has fundamental value.” 

They say that the only time that abortion can be done, is when there is a disease.

“Religious teachings both Islam and Christianity have clearly forbidden the taking away, termination or destruction of life including fetus or the personhood of the fetus,” they say, and add, “Abortion, however, can be permitted under severe and limited circumstances, especially when the life of the mother is proven beyond reasonable doubt to be in danger. Through disease conditions.”

They find it regrettable that contrary to the position of the religious entities in the country, the draft Bill “seeks to downplay and ignore the sacrosanct obligation to preserve the life and personhood of the fetus.”

The Bill, they say, provides for the liberalization of abortion, allowing the unrestricted performance of abortion and the granting to women the “freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so” a situation the religious leaders say “is gravely contradictory to religious teachings and is a license to destroy countless innocent and defenseless lives whenever pregnant women are desirous to do so.” 

According to the IRCSL members, the Bill, if passed into law in Sierra Leone, will set a bad precedent for West Africa where they say most countries are strictly opposed to abortion.

“Most African countries prohibit abortion and allow it only in extreme circumstances. This law would be one of the most extreme in all of Africa,” the members of IRCSL say.

The religious leaders note that the only country in West Africa allowing abortion is Benin, after “an overnight secret legislative session”.

“Benin itself is already complaining that unsafe abortion is still a problem,” they say, and add, “Nigeria allows abortion only to save the life of the mother. Liberia recently attempted to legalize abortion on demand and failed because the public were clearly opposed to it.” 

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The religious leaders describe abortion as “one of the most serious issues with profound religious, moral and ethical implications.”

They note that abortion has severe medical, physical, psychological and mental complications which they say can lead to the loss of life, anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies and the feeling of guilt for those involved.

Among the numerous foreseeable dangers of the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Bill 2024, the religious leaders point out, in particular, the violation of the sanctity of life and what they describe as the “personhood of fetus.”

They say that abortion which they also refer to as “termination of pregnancy or expulsion of pregnancy “products” constitutes an act of murder, “brutal one for that matter”, as it involves mutilation, amputation, stabbing, chopping off of limbs, and suffocating the fetus.  

They fear that the abortion Bill seeks to erode the family and marriage institutions as it permits only women to decide on their own when to do abortion with no regard for parents or the husband’s consent. The Bill provides that the woman alone has the right to decide who to accompany or be beside her during the abortion procedure.  

The religious leaders further fear that if passed into law, the Bill will permit the “liberalization of abortion” throughout the country including in remote villages where they say medical facilities have severe shortages.

They assert that societies that legalize abortion are experiencing population decline, noting that the large majority of the world’s countries prohibit abortion except in extreme circumstances. “In some countries like the UK, 1 in 4 babies are aborted before birth, leading to severe population problems,” they say.  

Making reference to the scientific basis for Pro-Life, the religious leaders note that life begins and conception, and explain, “95 percent of biologists agree that life begins at fertilization, and religious leaders have reiterated their firm opposition to this Bill.”

“Both Christianity and Islam are opposed to abortion on demand, even early in pregnancy. This has been ignored by the government,” they lament.  

Meanwhile, the IRCSL members have warned that the promotion of the concept of “sexuality” in the draft Bill may lead to the spread of what they describe as “deviant sexual identifications.”

“The religious perspective of sexual identification is based on the divine creation of mankind into a pair of male and female. There are ample divine verses in both Islam and Christianity to emphasize that other deviant sexual identifications are not permissible,” the religious leaders say.

“In some rare cases, a child may be born with “she-male” genital problems but this is an exception rather than the rule,” they say, and add, “The concept of sexuality is a modern concept.”

In their statement, the religious leaders have appealed to legislatures in Sierra Leone to ensure that “no bill that would serve contrary to the preservation and protection of the sanctity of life” is passed and made the law.