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Information reaching the office of the Director of RECOWACERAO NEWS AGENCY, RECONA indicates that the Pro-Abortion Activists are Fabricating Maternal Death Statistics to Push for Abortion in Sierra Leone. This was contained in a message delivered to the media by the Religious Leaders of this country.

To push for the legalization of abortion in Sierra Leone, local and international pro-abortion activists are fabricating figures to show how lack of “safe access to abortion” is leading to massive deaths, faith-based leaders in the West African country have said.

In a statement to oppose a Bill that seeks to legalize abortion in Sierra Leone, members of the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL) note that statistics for what has been branded “unsafe abortion deaths” in the country are not correct.

“These statistics are often fabricated by abortion activists, especially in Sierra Leone,” IRCSL members say in a report shared with ACI Africa on Friday, December 20.

The Sierra Leonean government, they say, “clearly stated last decade that there are no reliable statistics about the frequency of unsafe abortion in Sierra Leone, let alone enough information to establish what proportion of pregnancy-related deaths are as a consequence of unsafe abortion.”

Identifying bits of information they find questionable about the relationship between abortion and maternal deaths in Sierra Leone, the religious leaders say, “A UN press release claimed that unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal death but provides no basis for this claim, and was authored by four lawyers and a psychiatrist. No experts in public health or obstetrics and gynecology.”

They further dismiss a report by Ipas, which claimed that unsafe abortions caused 30 percent of maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. “This was completely fabricated as the source it cites said no such thing,” they say.

According to the IRCSL, which is headed by Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles of Sierra Leone’s Catholic Archdiocese of Freetown, maternal deaths in Sierra Leone have very little to do with what has been named “unsafe abortions.”

In their statement, the faith-based leaders say that the only reliable estimates of maternal death come from Sierra Leone’s Maternal Death Surveillance & Response annual report, which in 2016 found just 1.9 percent of maternal deaths were due to “abortive outcomes”, including ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages.

“We have no data regarding how many deaths occur from unsafe abortion alone since it is always grouped with other conditions. But we know it is at most 3 percent of maternal deaths – a tiny proportion,” IRCSL members say, adding that initiatives to reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone should focus on other issues like emergency obstetric care. 

They say that even with Sierra Leone’s maternal deaths, legalizing abortion would not help solve the problem, but that it could only make the problem worse. 

Proponents of the Bill titled “Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Act 2024” claim that it will “provide for safe motherhood and reproductive health care throughout Sierra Leone”, and that it will also “set the standards of sexual and reproductive health care” in the country.

Those in support of the Bill have also said that the Bill will “provide for the right to make decisions regarding safe motherhood and reproductive health and to provide for other related matters.”

On what has been claimed as “life-saving abortions” in the contested Bill, IRCSL members say, “Abortion to save a woman’s life is already legal in Sierra Leone and does not require a bill to legalize it. Obstetricians in Sierra Leone will already perform an abortion if the mother’s life is at risk. These doctors have not been consulted or offered their support for the Bill.”

According to the inter-religious Council, no evidence legalizing abortion solves the problem of maternal deaths. The Faith-based leaders say that it is pro-life countries that have the best maternal health records. 

“Malta and Poland have the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world, and both of them have prohibited abortion,” they say, adding that pro-abortion countries, on the other hand, still experience high rates of maternal deaths.

“The only West African country to allow abortion on demand is Benin, which still has major problems from unsafe abortion,” Sierra Leone’s faith-based leaders say, and add, “African countries with legal abortion still have major problems with unsafe abortion.”

According to the IRCSL, the main outcome of the Bill, if enacted, will result in mass murder of innocent lives.

The religious leaders say the legalization of abortion in Sierra Leone will also add more burden on the existing socio-economic challenges and put women and girls in danger.

The faith-based leaders appeal to Sierra Leone’s legislators to ensure that “no bill that would serve contrary to the preservation and protection of the sanctity of life” is passed.

Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu
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