A small bench and a makeshift nurse’s station have transformed an abandoned building in rural Njagbahun, Sierra Leone, into a temporary clinic offering free family planning services by Marie Stopes International. Nurses provide “post-abortion care” and distribute contraception while working in a dimly lit setting due to a curtained doorway. Mariama Soriba, 25, visited the clinic to receive a birth control implant, highlighting the need for access to family planning services in the area.

The proposed Safe Motherhood Bill in Sierra Leone aims to expand women’s reproductive rights by legalizing abortion and increasing access to family planning and reproductive health services. This bill is seen as a response to the high number of deaths among pregnant women, including those resulting from unsafe abortions. Fatou Esther Jusu, a 21-year-old nursing student, shares her personal experience of using misoprostol, an abortion-inducing drug, to terminate her pregnancy due to fear of judgment from her family. Jusu is now advocating for the bill that would decriminalize abortion, believing that her experiences as a victim should not be repeated by others.

Sierra Leone could become the second country in West Africa to decriminalize abortion, improving the safety of pregnant women, reducing preventable deaths, and challenging the current colonial-era law. Tens of thousands of women and girls attempt to self-terminate their pregnancies annually in Sierra Leone, where abortion is currently banned. The proposed

Source: http://www.africanews.com/2025/03/25/sierra-leone-debates-decriminalizing-abortion/