Nowa, Thank you for your contribution.
It is not surprising as anyone will support those having and propagating the same idea as one but I must say that your argument left the issues tangentially. You seem to have written extensively about pro-abortion and points against anti-abortion and your propagated third option of prochoice which I classed as pro abortion if viewed critically.
What I am propagating is that laws are irrelevant in preventing abortions complications and reducing maternal morbidity and mortality from the sequel of attempts at procuring abortion because when there is no pregnancy, there will be no abortion. What is relevant is education on how to prevent pregnancy in the first place. Once pregnancy is prevented, there is no need for abortion and its complications or abortion laws. This is the basis of public health medicine.
Prevention is the bedrock of public health medicine which fortunately some of us have been exposed earlier in your medical career so you can easily see the points I am stressing here. The concept I have proposed is that every Nigerian should be taught to prevent getting pregnant an exercise that will make the issues of abortion completely irrelevant.
Generally family doctors give pills to lower cholesterol levels to prevent heart diseases; others give low dose aspirin to prevent coronary artery diseases. Our women have mammography for early detection of breast cancers and prevent it. So also is screening for cervical changes to detect abnormal cells and prevent cervical cancers so our women folk can take measures as well to prevent pregnancies so that they do not have to procure abortion.
The use of preventive measures does not only apply to medicine but in all areas of life, for example the use of smoke alarm in the homes to detect fire early and prevent fire hazard or the use of barriers to prevent flooding.
To ensure the success of these preventive measures, people need education not laws. Basic sexual health education, coupled with moral and religious education will reduce drastically the number of those getting pregnant when it is inappropriate to do so. Education will also reduce the cases of incest and deviants having sexual relationship with minors. They may be educated to understand the ills of their action and so desist from such acts or if they do, they will use preventive measure so avoiding pregnancy and subsequent abortion and its sequel.
What Eghosa described in respect of marijuana is well known but he failed to include that liberalising or re-classing marijuana led to increased usage of the drug with its attendant deleterious effects.
Education about prevention of pregnancy is simple and would go down well with our people. Educating the people of the available methods of preventing pregnancy, technique of use, sideeffects, reliability and the source will reduce abortion significantly as well as the associated complications of abortion. This is not a religious stand but it is what is practicable, cheap and applicable in our environment as abortion is not a method of preventing pregnancy.
SEOI
ABORTION 2
