A bill that sought to permit abortion on demand and up to the point of birth in the African nation of Malawi has been rejected by lawmakers.
The proposed legislation, the Termination of Pregnancy Bill, was brought before the Malawian National Assembly earlier this month.
The Bill, advanced by Mathews Ngwale, head of Malawi’s Parliamentary Health Committee, had been in existence for five years and proposed that abortion should be made available in the country with no time limit.
Although such abortion would be permitted “to prevent injury to the physical or mental health of a pregnant woman”, the Bill essentially constituted a de facto legalisation of abortion.
However, MPs rejected the Bill outright this month when they voted against debating the legislation.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “Africa has a robust pro-life culture that made the passing of this deleterious and dishonest legislation unlikely.
“Obianuju Ekeocha, founder of Culture of Life Africa, has pointed out that ‘the issue of abortion is one that shows a stark difference between western countries and the majority of the African countries’ that ‘have continued to reject the idea of legalized abortion for the obvious reason that abortion is a direct attack on human life and human rights of the unborn’.
“Fortunately, Malawian MPs saw through Mr Ngwale’s Bill, which, much like abortion legislation in the West, including in the UK, would have legalised abortion on demand by taking advantage of the malleable term ‘mental health’, the vagueness of which has been used by pro-abortion activists and politicians to justify abortion under any circumstance.”
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