By Divine Okorie
Sir: Nigeria’s abortion laws appear to protect women, but in reality, they neglect women’s rights and expose them to severe health risks.
The Nigerian Penal Code and Criminal Code permit abortion only when a pregnancy poses a threat to a woman’s life. These laws overlook considerations of abortion outside the health factor. Women with unplanned pregnancies must choose between an illegal abortion and carrying such pregnancies to full term. Such women often cannot access adequate healthcare when complications arise. Reforming the abortion laws in Nigeria becomes urgent to protect women’s rights to life, reproductive health, and personal choices.
Nigeria’s abortion laws are not considerate or cognizant of women’s lives. Health factors are only a part of several factors that could influence a woman’s choice of abortion. For example, career pursuits and economic reasons are essential in determining a woman’s procreation decisions. Another instance is a pregnancy resulting from sexual violence. A victim of sexual violence may decide on abortion to escape the psychological torture of her experience. The current abortion laws ignore these circumstances, erasing the woman’s social and economic reasons, mental health needs, and personal choices.
The laws also fail in reducing abortion rates, which increased from 1.25 million in 2012 to 2.4 million in 2023. Rather, they push women desiring safe abortions towards unqualified practitioners. In 2025 alone, the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria reported that 13 per cent of maternal deaths in Lagos resulted from unsafe abortions. In 2012, 10 per cent of complications in pregnancies in Nigeria involved cases of previous unsafe abortions. Instead of protecting women, Nigeria’s abortion laws endanger their lives, deny women’s body autonomy and their right to reproductive health.
To address the risks of unsafe abortions in Nigeria, the National Assembly should review and reform abortion laws, expanding their provisions to include circumstances beyond health factors. Social and economic factors, traumatising incidents such as rape or incest, and personal circumstances affecting a woman’s career should also be legitimate grounds for legal abortion. This expansion will enable women to access adequate healthcare and align Nigeria with global human rights standards. Countries like France, China, Ireland, Poland, Kenya, and Zambia have liberalised abortion. In 2019, for example, Kenya expanded the exception to include cases of rape. Chad considers the mental health of women who are victims of rape, incest, and sexual assault, permitting them to abort legally. By reviewing its abortion laws, Nigeria would better protect women, respecting women’s autonomy over their bodies and their choice of abortion.
Nigeria should decriminalise abortion, although not as a campaign against reproduction or a promotion of incessant termination of pregnancies. The government should recognise abortion as a medical decision that a woman can make in consultation with a medical professional. Decriminalising abortion will encourage openness, and women who face complications resulting from an abortion can seek adequate care from qualified professionals.
It will also remove the associated stigma, and women could choose wisely, reducing the maternal death rate. Medical associations such as the Nigerian Medical Association and the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria should inform the National Assembly on the consequences of unsafe abortions and the need for reforming abortion laws.
Addressing the stigma around abortion would help to reduce the persistent unsafe abortion cases in Nigeria. The government should classify abortion-related stigma as a crime and prosecute those who perpetuate this stigma. Through the Ministry of Health and the National Orientation Agency, the government can sensitise the public on the reasons for abortion and women’s autonomy. Sensitisation should target rural areas where women are more likely to have unplanned pregnancies, encouraging them to seek professional advice without risking their lives. This sensitisation should include comprehensive reproductive health campaigns informing women about family planning resources. Taking this approach will mitigate the rising cases of unwanted pregnancies and mortality resulting from unsafe abortions.
Women are the foundation of the family, which is the bedrock of other societal institutions. The role of women in national development is also crucial. Nigeria must reform its abortion laws that are forcing women into critical situations, to prioritise their health, life, and dignity.
Divine Okorie is a writing fellow at African Liberty.
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