On The Prolife Movement and How It Doesn’t Reduce Abortion Rates

I remember the year 2018 almost like it was yesterday. I had become very active on feminist Twitter, with me sharing my thoughts and views on an app that prior to that, I was not so particular about. 

As a young feminist, the year 2018 also saw me strongly articulate how and why I came off the fence on issues such as abortion, submission and even modesty doctrines.

Regarding abortion, one memory on Twitter that I cannot shake off, is that of how Irish women used Twitter to share horror stories of illegal abortions gone bad. This was done under the hashtag #repealthe8th. In that hashtag, Irish women shared how women who could afford it often travelled to neighbouring countries like England to get an abortion. 

This was such that after undergoing the procedure, they often had to fly back that same day even if they were in pain and needed rest. Some other women who were married, shared stories of being mistreated by hospital staff and being told fetuses from risky pregnancies they may have wanted but had to let go of, had to die inside them before the fetuses could be evacuated from their wombs. 

In essence, the fetuses had to “miscarry” themselves so that it would not appear as though an abortion had occurred.

Now, in all of the stories shared, one thing which struck me was this: Regardless of Ireland having prolife and anti abortion laws prior to the success of #repealthe8th, women still had the need to remove unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. And this also included women who were married, women who were rich and in the corporate world and women who were students. 

The need to remove a pregnancy did not discriminate and did not go away simply because the country had declared abortion an illegal thing.

I am a Nigerian woman and a prochoice feminist. Not just a prochoice feminist, but I am also a pro abortion feminist. I say this because there are people who claim to be “pro choice but not really pro abortion” and then I wonder how those people will react if and when someone around them chooses to abort.

In Nigerian law, Nigeria does not allow for abortion and it is only mildly permissible if the mother’s life is in danger. What stands as danger is left to the medical personnel around the pregnant woman to decide. Even more, it is the same abortive process that would be done on a woman with a dangerous pregnancy. 

This goes to show that Nigerian laws really do not want women to have agency over our bodies and want other people to make the decision for us.

But have all these laws stopped the need for abortion in Nigeria? Of course not. What it has instead done is to create an atmosphere where poorer women suffer the most. This is because even if abortion is illegal in Nigeria, women who are well to do often can get it done in a hushed manner and receive post abortion care. It is women who do not have money that are punished first for their poverty and second for the fact that they had sex.

Speaking with Steph, a Ghanaian graphic designer and writer, she explained that pro lifers hardly ever care about the lives of children as they posit.

In her words: “Personally, I believe that if “prolife” people really cared about life, they would rather fight for laws to ensure that people meet a certain criteria to be parents before they are allowed to have kids. There are millions of children suffering in the world from neglect and terrible parenting but prolifers only care about a child when it is still in a woman’s womb. Ask them what they do for children after they’re no longer habitating a woman’s womb and you will hear crickets. 

What is the point of children coming into this world to suffer when the parents aren’t capable of caring for them properly and society can’t take up that responsibility either?”.

The sincere reality is that pro life laws do not stop the need for abortion. This is because unplanned and unwanted pregnancies have been a thing from time immemorial even for women who are married and working.

It is in the best interests of all women to be proactive about our reproductive health and it is in the best interest of a nation’s well being, to create avenues where safe legal abortion exists and where mothers are supported and not pushed out of the workforce for bringing life.