ABORTING OUR FUTURE

Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today. Because if a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you kill me -- there is nothing between.
MOTHER TERESA, 1979

As i sat in the lounge of the Lagos Television studio in 2004, i could not help but notice and feel saddened by the little baby sitting on a woman's lap and trying unsuccessfully to balance her head on her shoulders. Her head seemed to carry all the weight of her little body. The little baby was a product of an abortion that went wrong. Her mother had taken abortion drugs which was supposed to kill the baby, but rather than kill the baby, deformed and affected the health of the baby badly.

Perhaps the subject of abortion is a sensitive one, with so much emotional turmoil accompanied with every case, but the increasing cases of abortion in Nigeria and beyond is becoming a thing of concern, especially among teenagers . Although, abortion is illegal in Nigeria and done only to save a woman's life, many women and teenagers alike have put themselves in danger as well as their unborn child by undergoing abortion.

Abortion simply put is a procedure to end a pregnancy by removing the fetus and placenta from the mother's womb.It is a procedure used to end an unwanted pregnancy. There are two ways that abortion can be conducted: through surgery or through the use of drugs.
A particular drug gaining ground in developing countries like Nigeria to abort unwanted foetus is the RU486 and another is an ulcer drug called misoprostol.

Most attempts to abort with misoprostol drug is not often successful and doctors have discovered a high rate of birth defects among infants exposed in utero to misoprostol, such as fused joints, growth retardation and a paralysis of the face called Moebius syndrome. Many of this children are abandoned soon after birth and left for dead.While in the case of visiting a quack doctor, the mother might not be so lucky to live.

The society has a great role to play in the fight against abortion in the country, Early sex education should be given to children when they begin to reach puberty stage, also the need for the parents to be there for the children at particular times that might seem crucial to the development of the girl child.

The government also has a role to play, as some of these abortion drugs can be bought cheaply across the counter. The sales of these drugs should be checked knowing that the risk involved in using these drugs is very high.

As Ronald Reagan quoted in the NewYork Times rightly puts it "I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born". We should give our unborn children the right to live, to become something in life, to affect our world.