By A. Kamara & N. Assad (Purposeful)
Last Thursday, State House hosted a critical dialogue on the future of Sierra Leonean women. The Safe Motherhood Bill – an opportunity to save lives and end unnecessary suffering – took centre stage. Yet, the stark truth was laid bare… in a discussion about women’s bodies, men outnumbered women by a large margin.
The loudest voices of opposition belonged to the Inter-Religious Council, delivered by a man representing an executive devoid of women. Their message? That the bill is immoral and that every pregnancy, even those conceived in violence, deserves to be carried to term.
Let that sink in.
But this right here isn’t just about theology or politics – it’s about an 11-year-old girl, on her way to study for her NPSE, ambushed and raped. It’s about what happens next. Under current laws, she has no right to safety or care. She cannot access an abortion, even if the pregnancy threatens her health or future. What she can do is carry the weight of that violence in her body, give birth to a child she did not choose, and abandon her dreams – her life – entirely.
Is This Morality?
The Inter-Religious Council claims to defend life. But what kind of life are they protecting? Certainly not the life of the girl who, at 12, is forced to become a mother instead of a student. Not the life of the woman who dies from a backstreet abortion because she could not access reproductive health education or services nor afford a safe abortion.
Bishop Akintayo Sam-Jolly, speaking for the Council, said: “Whether children are disabled or able-bodied, whether conceived in love or violence, they are human beings with an inherent right to life.” But where is that inherent right for the mothers and girls left to bleed, broken and scarred, by laws that prioritize ideology over humanity?
In response to concerns raised by religious leaders, the Ministry of Health amended the bill to include stricter criteria for abortion, limiting it to cases of rape, incest, severe fetal abnormalities, or when the mother’s life is at risk. Yet, even these carefully considered changes are not enough for the Inter-Religious Council. They continue to claim the bill contains ambiguities and that the amendments fail to align with their version of morality.
Their recommendations? To remove these provisions entirely – effectively ensuring that even girls violently raped on their way to school are left with no options.
What they call morality is, in truth, about control.
Because in 2019, when rape was declared a national crisis and President Bio called a state of emergency on sexual violence, where was the Inter-Religious Council’s moral outrage? Where were their prayers and sermons when survivors cried for justice and safety?
They were silent. And now they use the language of morality to perpetuate the same violence they failed to rebuke.
The Cost of Timidity
President Bio’s frustration was palpable. “We are too timid as a nation to make transformative decisions,” he said, urging Parliament to act. He reminded the room of the colonial laws still governing our bodies – laws written in 1861 by a country that has long since abandoned them.
Forty other African nations have reformed their abortion laws under the Maputo Protocol, some even exceeding the protocol’s provisions, yet Sierra Leone remains among the few lagging behind. How do we progress if we are scared to leap?
The answer is simple: We don’t. Progress requires discomfort. It requires questioning norms that have gone unchallenged for too long. It requires rejecting the hypocrisy that allows backstreet abortions for the poor while safe procedures are quietly available to the rich and powerful.
The Real Stories Behind the Debate
While religious leaders argued over abstract notions of morality, doctors in the room spoke of reality. Dr. Frances Wurie of the Sierra Leone Medical Women’s Association described a girl – just a child – whose womb she was forced to remove after a postpartum hemorrhage: “She had no business being pregnant in the first place.”
This isn’t rare. It’s daily life in Sierra Leone. Every day, 3-5 women die from pregnancy-related complications. Unsafe abortions account for 10% of these deaths. The victims? Often young. Often poor. Always desperate.
Without this bill, abortions will not stop – they will remain deadly. Without this bill, more girls will be forced to carry pregnancies conceived through violence, only to lose their lives in childbirth. Without this bill, doctors like Dr. Wurie will continue to meet the devastated eyes of women while telling them that the pregnancy they cherish is slowly killing them.
Maternal deaths already account for 23% of all deaths among women and girls aged 15-49 years in Sierra Leone. Without this bill, that number will not change. Women will continue to die in silence, their lives treated as expendable in a nation that has the power – but not yet the will – to save them.
Faith, Control, and Hypocrisy
Faith should heal, guide, and protect – not harm. Yet, the Inter-Religious Council uses faith to uphold laws that sacrifice women and girls on the altar of ideology—forcing them to give birth to their rapists’ children, leaving them hemorrhaging in hospital wards from unsafe abortions, and condemning them to preventable deaths. They invoke morality while our nation remains one of the deadliest places in the world to give birth. Why?
Because their stance has never and will never be about faith or morality; it is about fear – fear of change, fear of losing power over women’s lives.
The choice before us is clear: Will we let a small group of men dictate the health and futures of women in Sierra Leone, or will we listen to the voices of doctors, mothers, and survivors who are calling for change? Will we cling to control, or will we fight for compassion?
A Call to Action
It’s about making sure no girl, no matter her age, is forced to trade her dreams for trauma, and no woman loses her life because safe care was out of reach.
President Bio has done his part, pushing this bill through Cabinet and urging Parliament to finish the job. Now it’s up to lawmakers to decide…will they lead with courage, or will they remain too timid to act? Too worried about how they’ll be judged by their religious leaders?
As Dr. Aisha Fofana Ibrahim reminded us during the meeting, the state’s job is to protect its people, traditional leaders must care for their communities, and pastors are responsible for their congregations. Our lawmakers must understand that their responsibility is to the nation and not a congregation.
To the people of Sierra Leone, this is your moment too. Demand better. Demand that Parliament pass the Safe Motherhood Bill. The lives of your daughters, sisters, and mothers depend on it.
As President Bio said: “Pray that your daughter is not the victim of rape or a severe medical complication that requires a safe termination procedure. That is when you would realize why this bill is needed – or why it should have been passed years ago.”
