The Federal Government is working towards decriminalising abortion in the country.
Binyerem Ukaire, Director, Family Health Department of the Ministry of Health, stated this on Thursday in Abuja during the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) summit 1.0.
The summit was organised by the Media Health & Rights Initiative of Nigeria to mark this year’s World Contraception Day.
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Themed “A Choice for All: Freedom to Plan, Power to Choose,” Ukaire was represented by the Head, Health Promotion Department of the ministry, Nma Ogbonna.
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According to her, sections 288 to 290 of the Criminal Code makes abortion a criminal act but that the government and partners are seeing the need not to allow girls and women of reproductive age to continue die in silence.
“Government is going to make sure that it is no longer a criminal act, because if we go on, even the doctor that performed the act is equally getting up to 14 years imprisonment,” she said.
The department, she said, is working assiduously to educate the populace on sexual reproductive health and rights.
