| dc.description.abstract | Nigerian laws, including Islamic Law applicable in Nigeria, prohibit
(indiscriminate) termination of pregnancy; save therapeutic abortion when
the life of the pregnant woman is endangered. Yet, the abortion rate remains
alarmingly high in Nigeria. The data on therapeutic abortion is virtually
non-existent or unreliable. The laws are, however, silent on conditions that
endanger the life of the pregnant woman. This has prompted the Nigerian
Federal Ministry of Health to formulate guidelines for safe termination of
pregnancy. Therapeutic abortion may be necessitated by many conditions,
including Congenital Anomalies. These are general foetal defects, the
occurrence of which may bemajor causes of infant mortality in the world.
Their severity createsunbearable hardship for the victims, their families and
caregivers. If diagnosed during pregnancy, the laws are silent about the
step(s) to be taken should abortion be called for to relieve the situation of
the pregnant woman. However, the guidelines set out by the Federal
Ministry of Health covers situations involving “Severe Congenital
Anomalies”. The dire overall situations caused by these distressful
conditions provoke the question: can the extant laws not be more explicit in
recognizing them as valid grounds for abortion? Relying on
doctrinal/analytical methodology, the paper observes that Nigerian laws,
including the codified (Islamic) Penal Law, do not make adequate
provisions to cater for Congenital Anomalies as exculpating grounds for
abortion, and concludes that there are justifiable reasons to include these
distressful conditions as specific exceptions to the prohibition against
(indiscriminate) abortion. | en_US |
