MONROVIA – The Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Liberia, representing Christian doctors and healthcare professionals across the country, is grieved to learn of the proposed legalization of abortion across Liberia through the Public Health Bill.
In an official statement issued recently, the group said they are especially alarmed to learn that this may be voted through the Senate in the coming week or two.
Like many other stakeholders and the public, the group noted they were not consulted before the proposals to legalize abortion, which according to the group is the taking of a human life.
“The Hippocratic Oath expressly forbids abortion. As both doctors and Christians, therefore, we are compelled to resist these proposals,” the statement said.
“We are particularly saddened to hear how extreme the proposals are”. CMDA Liberia noted that the Public Health Bill seeks to legalize abortion for any reason up to 24 weeks adding this would give Liberia the most extreme abortion law in the entire continent. “However, we must be clear that this Bill cannot be fixed merely by lowering the limit to 18 weeks, as has been rumoured. The abortion provisions must be withdrawn in their entirety.”
According to CMDA Liberia’s statement, abortion is already legal when the woman’s life is at risk and their duty to save life is not impeded by the current law. Even if there were a need to loosen the current law, legalizing abortion on demand is grossly disproportionate and anathema to our duty as doctors to protect life, not to take it.
The statement continued: “Abortion for economic or social reasons, and abortion on demand, is not healthcare. Although morbidity from clandestine abortion may be significant, there is no convincing evidence that legalization is the answer, and indeed it may make the problem worse. Countries which protect unborn life, such as Poland and Malta, have the best maternal mortality statistics in the entire world.”
“Science confirms what scripture teaches: that human life begins at conception. Doctors and scientists have known that fertilization marks the beginning of an individual human organism for nearly two centuries. Nothing has contradicted this since. As such, human life must be protected from that point: not from 24 weeks, not from 18 weeks. From its very beginning at conception”.
The statement added in Western countries where abortion is legal, 1 in 3 women have an abortion, and 1 in 4 pregnancies are terminated by abortion. “We cannot stand by while a quarter of our country’s children are legally killed by abortion. Not only are the children harmed, but abortion has also been shown to be harmful for women’s health, particularly their mental health.”
“The medical profession has not called for this bill, nor has the public. This raises the question of where the bill came from. Our own colleagues have reported pressure from European governments and American NGOs to support this bill. This is not a Liberian idea. This is a Western idea which has been promoted in Liberia with Western money.”
“Since this bill stands so clearly in contrast with sound medical science, with our Christian faith, with Liberian values, and with the wellbeing of our children and families, we call for the abortion provisions to be completely removed. No amendment will rescue this attempt to legalize abortion: the law must stay exactly as it is.”
“If abortion is to be legalized, let the politicians make their position clear in the election and let the people decide. Let us not legalize abortion at the behest of Western leaders. We do not call for a 2-week delay in the Bill, or an amendment to soften it. We call for a complete retraction of the abortion provisions and will not accept anything less than this. Our children and mothers are too valuable,” CMDA Liberia’s statement concluded.
