Civil Society condemns Abortion Bill
BY SAHR DUMBAR MATTURI
As the issue for the enactment of the Abortion Bill becomes a heated debate in different quarters, on Wednesday the 10th of February 2016 members from the National Strategic Women’s Civil Society Association Sierra Leone which comprises over two hundred Civil Society organizations countrywide stormed the Media One Center expressing their dissatisfaction and calling on the attention of the government not to pass such a bill into law as it has the tendency to destroy the good image of our society.
Madam Haja Mariam Kamara in an interview said that “as a Civil Society organization we are calling on the government not to sign the Safe Abortion Bill that is before them as it has the tendency to destroy our society. We need to set capital punishment for rapists, the unborn child is innocent and aborting them is murder which is a crime and punished by law.”
Rev Martha Chelozee, giving an update about the meeting at YWCA, stated that “today we were called by women’s forum in a meeting at the YWCA and in that meeting it was agreed that it was time to be speaking the same language on the Abortion Bill. We told them right there and then that the National Strategic Women’s Civil Society Association Sierra Leone will never support such a bill.” She also noted that other organizations expressed similar views against the Abortion Bill, noting that the grievance against the bill is too thick.
“It was a shock for us today coming to the meeting organized by the Women’s Forum not knowing that it was meant to support the Safe Abortion Bill. We don’t need a stand-alone bill on Safe Abortion and then again when people sign laws they should consider the cultural, social, ethnic, religious makeup as well as the economy,” Rev Martha disclosed.
