By: Frank P. Martin
MONROIV: The Standing Committee Chair on Health at the House of Representatives, Joseph Somwarbi, has named misconceptions and lies as contributing factors for the increasing rate of unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions in Liberia.
The Nimba Lawmaker said parents and religious leaders should also be blamed for the rising rate of teenage pregnancies in some instances.
According to Lawmaker Somwarbi, religious leaders and some parents have misconstrued the good intent of Family Planning and the bill to legalize abortion that has been sent to the Senate, (Upper House) of Liberia’s bicameral Legislature for concurrence following its passage by the House of Representatives (Lower House) recently.
He claims hate messages are also being preached against family planning and abortion which have stalled the many efforts made by both local and international organizations for Liberia’s adhering to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations for nations around the world to made commitment in accelerating access to family planning services as rights.
Representative Somwarbi has, however, underscored the need for more public awareness to be created by the Liberian government, through the Ministry of Health (MOH) and its partners upon concurrence by the Liberian Senate with the Lower House on the passage of the bill to legalize abortion.
. “My committee has been working in the interest of the nation’s health sector; for which we passed the abortion bill. The bill has been sent to the senate for concurrence,” he said.
He made these remarks at the official launch of the Liberia Family Planning 2030 Commitment, held at the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Ministerial Complex in Congo Town, outside Monrovia, recently..
The Nimba County District Three Representative, serving as a Chief Launcher of the “Liberia FP2030 Commitment” said, if all parents are concerned about adolescent girls and women, more efforts are needed with education to subvert the perceptions in the public that have limited the chances of preventing unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions.
On Wednesday, July 5, 2030, the Family Health Division of the Ministry of Health formally launched the commitment document, envisioning a nation where everyone including adolescent girls and other young people and those marginalized populations make informed choices, have equitable and affordable access to quality Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) including rights based family planning services that empower them to fully participate in national development.
Notwithstanding, findings contained in the 2023 National Health’s Document, styled: “Abortion Incident and Severity of Complications in Liberia”, showed that an estimated 38,779 induced abortions occurred annually in Liberia.
Translating the induced abortion is at a rate of 30.7% per 1,000 women of reproductive age, and an induced abortion ration of 229 abortions per 1,000 live births, according to Liberia’s health authorities.
The document added that there is regional variation in the abortion rates, with North Central having the lowest abortion rate (6.6/1000) and South-Central having the highest (49.7/1000).
In the same year, approximately 14, 555 women received care for complications, resulting from induced and spontaneous abortions in health facilities.
The vast majority of women who sought post-abortion care services did so in public (67%) and primary-level health facilities (74%), the documents added..
The document says unintended pregnancy rates in the South-Central region may imply that many women and girls have a high unmet need for family planning.
According to the 2019-2020 Liberia Demographic and Health Survey report, one-third of married women had an unmet need for family planning, 21% for spacing and 13% for limiting number of children.
In line with expectation, the incidence rate is highest in regions with highest unintended pregnancy rate, further reinforcing the argument that legal restrictions do not reduce the occurrence of abortions, instead restrictions drive women toward unsafe abortion.
The document, a copy of which is in possession of this paper, shows that women seeking abortion care in Liberian health facilities are socially and demographically diverse.
This is to say almost half of all patients seeking post-abortion care presented with either severe (37%) or near miss (11%) complications, and this varied widely by region.
The Liberia National Abortion Study focuses on several areas including measuring abortion, magnitude of complication, cost and quality of post-abortion care, following two years of methodology.
