Emmanuel Ugwu
11 July 2009
Umuahia — Leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Abia State has called on the Abia State House of Assembly to reject the proposed bills on "Women's reproductive rights and "Women's maternal health rights, saying that Abia needed life saving medical institutions and not life destroying contraption."
CAN leadership expressed their opposition to the controversial reproductive rights Bills when they paid a courtesy visit to the Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Agwu U. Agwu, in his office urging him that the bills should be thrown into the trash bin, where, according to them, such anti-life Bills rightly belong.
Chairman of the Abia CAN, Archbishop Rogers O. Uwadi, who led the delegation, informed the Assembly that the pro-abortion groups comprising IPPF, Society for Family Health, Ipas, UNICEF, and USAID had shifted their "genocidal attack" against the Nigerian unborn child to Abia State House of Assembly after their defeat at the National Assembly and Imo House of Assembly.
Uwadi, who is also the Methodist Archbishop of Umuahia, stated that in as much as Abia women have a right to reproductive health, such rights should not be fostered with legislation on abortion.
According to him, what the women folk required were health education, health saving-skills and basic health facilities nearest to their homes and places of work to ensure prompt and affordable healthcare in times of need and emergency.
The cleric said that women required a law to protect their reproductive rights to freely choose their marriage partners irrespective of creed, race or ethnic decent and legal protection to guarantee their rights as expectant and nursing mothers when under gainful employment.
In his response, the Speaker said the Assembly has not received any Bills on "women's reproductive rights and women's maternal Health rights, adding that the fears of CAN's leadership were well founded and that a Bill of such sensitive nature would normally have a public hearing where various shades of opinion would be accommodated.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
