Liberia’s new public health law, which was passed by the House of Representatives in 2022, is currently being debated in a special session by the Senate where it is facing a barrage of opposition from abortion opponents. A provision in the bill, which contains a range of other public health elements, would make abortion legal up to 18 weeks of pregnancy as long as it is done by a doctor, the most liberal in Africa….
Monrovia – Pale and weak, Pauline Kule was rushed to the James N. Davis Memorial hospital in July because she had been bleeding profusely. The 19-year-old swallowed 15 pills hoping to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. A ninth-grade student, Kule says she was afraid her father would withdraw his financial support if he found…
For every three women who give birth at the James N. Davies Memorial Hospital in Monrovia, another woman is treated for complications after an unsafe abortion. Since January, the maternity hospital in Jacob Town has treated 281 women who have either tried to abort the baby themselves or paid someone else to do it. “They…
Unsafe abortion is one of the major contributing factors to maternal mortality in Liberia. That’s from the Director of the family health at the Ministry of Health. Dr Saye Baawo says unsafe abortions not only make many women infertile, they also result in death. In the first study of its kind in Liberia, the government…
