Stakeholders, including medical doctors, lawyers, gynaecologists and policymakers have demanded a more pragmatic approach including increased awareness, strong legal backing, and improved access to reproductive health services to tackle the menace of unsafe abortion among other gender-based violence.

The call was made in Abeokuta on Wednesday during a high-level round table meeting with policymakers and other stakeholders on the progress of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Ogun State.

Speaking at the event, the founder of the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi emphasised that gender-based violence remains a common issue across all regions of Nigeria.

Dr Akiyode-Afolabi said, “Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, second only to India and a significant percentage of this is brought about by unsafe abortion practices.

“So the program today is to ensure that we save lives and we save women and girls from dying unnecessarily.

“We are appealing to policymakers, and government to take steps to address this so that women won’t continue to die unnecessarily. That’s why Ogun State has passed the guidelines, so we do hope it’s effective for them.

“The guidelines are not also talking about rape and incest, it is also talking about other circumstances where the abortion of pregnancy becomes necessary for example if a woman has cancer, diabetes, and some other issues that could become a threat to that pregnancy.”

Lending her voice to the discussion, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Motunrayo Adeleye, represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mrs Adejumoke Adewole, said the state had adopted the STOP policy to provide a legal framework for access to safe termination services.

Mrs Adewole said, “We need to escalate awareness and ensure that the STOP policy receives legislative backing. This would give it legal status and allow the law to better protect women and girls, especially in cases involving rape and incest.”

She emphasized the importance of revising existing laws to include cases where pregnancy results from incest or rape, arguing that these situations pose psychological and emotional trauma for victims.

The Senior Gender Equality Adviser at the Centre for Reproductive Rights, Nairobi, Kenya, Caroline Wambue, praised the state government for its leadership in interpreting national law to create the STOP Guidelines.

Wambue urged other Nigerian states to follow suit and called on the Lagos State Government to reinstate similar guidelines which were suspended recently.

Similarly, a Gynecologist, Dr. Olonode Luqman highlighted that unsafe abortion contributes to about 13% of maternal deaths in Nigeria.

He warned that many women resort to untrained providers, leading to fatal complications.

“The adoption of national health insurance and the emergence of Ogun state health insurance has made access to health very cheap, for people, so it’s important that our people get information, it’s the information that will drive change.

“When people know that all their health needs can be met within the existing medical establishment in the state and it has been subsidized through health insurance they would have access to it. My advice for people is to key into some of those government policies,” he said.