Women advocate for safe abortion rights

Women of Liberia demand the right to have abortions for safety and health purposes.

Monrovia, Liberia, July 23, 2024—West Point Women For Health And Development, a nonprofit organization based in West Point Township, Montserrado County, is calling on the Boakai-Koung administration to grant safe abortion rights to Liberian women.

They also want the government to abolish Female Genital Mutilation practice in the country.

Female Genital Mutilation in Liberia is a practice widely known as the cutting of female private parts.

At a day-long seminar with women and girls recently in Montserrado County, the Executive Director of the pro-women organization Nelley Cooper emphasized the necessity for the establishment of a safe national abortion center, noting that countless women and girls have died while in pursuit of safe abortion.

Madam Cooper argued that whether or not abortion is legalized here, there will always exist abortion, adding that, worse of all, it is in an unsafe environment. She wondered why the government wouldn’t like to establish a center where professionals would operate.

Speaking of FGM, Facilitator Doctor Henry Gbolee lamented that the traditional practice of female circumcision has created more harm than good for young adults who were forced into the practice.

Doctor Gbolee disclosed that doctors and nurses have, over the years, encountered serious bleeding problems from pregnant women during the time of delivery, something he attributed to female circumcision, which has taken away many lives.

According to him, the majority of the deaths that occur during delivery are due to so-called traditional practices, noting that they must be stopped to avoid more unnecessary deaths of women and girls in the country. Editing by Jonathan Browne