Date: 2018-02-16

Some secondary school pupils in Ilorin participated, alongside a group of anti-abortion activists, in a rally organised in the Kwara State capital last Friday to raise awareness for the increasing deaths of female pupils in the state due to abortion.

The pupils were seen marching through the streets of the city in the company of officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, with public address systems mounted on moving vehicles. They also carried placards bearing various messages, which condemned abortion and warned other people about its dangers.

Some of the placards read: 'Anti-abortion movement', 'Don't kill that baby,' 'Choose life,' Abortion is dangerous, stop it;' and 'Don't kill unborn babies.'

The organisers of the rally, acting under the aegis of a non-governmental organisation known as Women Who Care, in a meeting with journalists lamented that some pupils had lost their lives in the course of aborting unwanted pregnancies and consequently, aborted their education and future.

Describing abortion as evil, the Programmes Coordinator of the group, Diana Umoru, urged the Federal Government not to heed calls to legalise abortion in the country.

Noting that the rally was essentially aimed at creating awareness for abortion, she said, "A lot of people ignorantly have been committing abortion. They include married people, pupils, students of tertiary institutions and other young people. We have been dealing with this issue by going from camps and schools to talk about it. We decided to have a rally, starting in Kwara State to create awareness.

"Abortion is killing people. It is the end time holocaust. We want people to know this. We say, 'No to abortion' and 'War against abortion.' Many people have been killed in Nigeria. Abortion is not legalised in the country and many people go to quacks.

"Abortion should not be legalised in Nigeria because it kills life. The baby in the womb is alive. It can feel pain. From five months, a baby feels pain. We have cases of babies that were brought out at three months of pregnancy and they survived. If these babies could survive, they do not need to be killed in the womb. They are future destines."

Also, the Coordinator of the WWC, Cynthia-Tonia Salami, said that about 50 million babies were aborted globally every year, adding that many women did face a lot of consequences after abortion.

Salami said, "There are physical hazards in abortion. Culprits could have hemorrhage. A woman can die out of excessive bleeding. There is vaginal sepsis or narrowing of the vagina, blood septic, lung infection and many other health complications. The lives of women and babies are daily being snuffed out."

The activists also called on the government to enact a law prohibiting abortion in the country and prescribing heavy punishment for culprits as a deterrent.

"Abortion should not be legalised. If our lawmakers were aborted, they would not be where they are now. There should be a bill to prohibit abortion," they said.