…says 5.8million babies die through contraceptive in Nigeria
BY PHILIP NWOSU
Unless the Federal Government halts its plans to increase contraceptive prevalence in Nigeria from 15 percent to 36 percent, the death rate of babies who die through abortion in Nigeria annually could climb from 5.8million to 13.9million, a Civil Society Organisation of Nigeria has said
The Civil Society Organisation of Nigeria said Nigeria aborts an average of 1,125,000 million babies annually, stressing that using the world ratio of abortion and abortifacient deaths; Nigeria was killing 5,850,000 million by contraception annually.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Director-General, Project for Human Development, Mr. Jerry Okwuosa, said that, to increase contraceptive prevalent from 15.1 per cent to 36 per cent would take our contraception death toll to 13,947,020 million annually or an additional 8 million deaths by professorial antics.
The Civil Society Organisations of Nigeria (CSON) kicked against recent proposal by the Federal Government to increase contraceptive prevalence in Nigeria from 15 per cent to 36 percent in order to reduce Nigeria’s population, explaining that the increase use of contraceptives amounts to legalizing abortion in Nigeria through the back door, especially as it has been proven that contraceptives kill more babies than abortion does.
Indeed the group said that the proposal by the Minister of Health Professor Isaac Adewole had been presented to President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that minister should stop encouraging the use of contraceptives by Nigerians, debunking the minister’s position that increased use of contraceptives could lead to abortion reduction.
The Federal Government had in August announced plans to accelerate contraceptive prevalence rate in Nigeria to 36 per cent by 2018.
According to the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, the acceleration will help control the imminent population explosion and also improve the quality of life for women and children.
Prof Adewole, who was speaking at an event on family planning, said the present administration is poised at making family planning a national policy.
But the Civil Society Organisation of Nigeria and the Project for Human Development (PHD) have condemned move by the minister saying that it would compound the problems especially for women who use the contraceptives.
The group said that contraceptive is a slippery slope to abortion, “hence once a woman is tricked into using contraception, and it fails (as they always do), she will go for abortion (the ultimate contraceptive) because she considers the resulting baby a failure of technology and not her fault.”
Okwuosa, said: “The undisputed truth is that not only has contraception not lowered abortion rates anywhere. It has in fact increased it because of the manufacturer approved conclusion that ‘no contraceptive can guarantee 100 percent effectiveness.
“Birth control pills need to be taken at the same time every day for peak effectiveness. You know and I know that there is not a teenager in the world who does everything the same time every day.
“Most importantly, contraceptives are dangerous to health. The World Health Organisation (WHO) classified contraceptives as carcinogenic (cancer –causing agents) in a September 2005 reports. In spite of the carcinogenicity, WHO routinely makes the unsupported claims that ‘the health benefit clearly exceed the health risk’. Is it not shocking tht the WHO is not concerned that women are putting cancer –causing chemicals, which are in the same category as cigarettes and asbestos in their bodies daily.”
Okwuosa said that, “They want us to believe that increasing contraceptive use will reduce abortions. This is a lie. Can they mention any country the world over that has reduced abortion by increasing contraception? Contraception increases abortion.”