ABORTION IS A SACRIFICE TO THE DEVIL
Reading the above article titled: “Abortion Is A Sacrifice Satan” written
by Okechukwu Peter Nwobu and published in nigeriavillagesquare.com on 9th
August, 2008, makes an interesting reading. I agree mostly with what he
said, though I do not want to go spiritual as to whose sacrifice abortion
was for. However, where I feel that the author an in fact most people that
write about this topic fail to address is the issue of prevention, in this
case contraception.
To be clear I am of the Catholic faith. I was born a catholic and by His
grace, I will die a catholic. Having taking that monkey off my back; I
will now go ahead to discuss the issue which my faith forbids, which is
contraception. The Catholic Church forbids abortion and personally, I am
opposed to killing of any kind. Abortion no matter how anybody views it is
murder. Killing of a human being, to me is murder. I do not want to go
through the legal rigmarole and the legal personality of a fetus. Some
believe that it is not a human being while some believe it is. That is not
the essence of this discourse. Whether we believe it or not, you do not
have to share my faith or to even be a Christian to feel that there is
something wrong here. Even before the advent of Christianity in Africa,
our forefathers knew that taking the life of another in whatever form, is
an abomination, and calls for ‘ikpu alu’-cleansing of the abomination.
So if most people view abortion as murder or killing of a human being, why
then do we shy away from trying to prevent a situation that will lead a
situation where killing of the innocent human being becomes an option? I
love my Christian faith forever, but I still do not understand why the
Catholic Church outlaws abortion on one hand and then on the other hand,
against every form of contraceptive or sex education. It made no sense to
me when I was young, and it still does not make sense to me now. It is
like someone being against killing of mosquitoes, and then turns back and
cry about contacting malaria. If you do not eradicate mosquitoes, you must
get bouts of malaria.
Whether we fail to understand that the world has changed or not, we are in
the computer age. I am not even talking about developed country. Even in
the remotest villages, kids are getting more inquisitive and assertive
these days. We are in the period of sexual revolution, whether people
believe it or not. It may be the sign of the end, I do not know. But this
is the situation we found ourselves in. With the age of internet, movies
and pop culture, there is no way we can run away from the fact that we
need to do something to prevent unwanted pregnancies that lead to
abortions. The old adage says that if you are digging and find yourself
inside a whole, you stop digging.
Many people argue that it is wrong to teach their kids about sex. Some
people think that sex education is coterminous with teaching them how to
have sex. It is a wrong assumption. Parents need to do a better job of
teaching their kids about what action beget what consequences. In igbo we
say “onye nyuo nsi ka o na-aga ahia, o nata ozute ijiji”-if one defecates
on his way to the market, on his way back flies will welcome him. If we
fail to prepare our teenage kids about what the consequences of
pre-marital sex, then we should not blame them for the ignorance. We have
to teach them right and wrong. You have to do your own part and leave the
rest to God. Do not assume that teaching them about life is exposing them
to promiscuity. Whatever you say to them, they would still do what they
want to do. It only takes the grace of God.
I am a firm believer of abstinence as my faith taught me. Medically,
psychologically and morally speaking, this is the best way to prevent not
only unwanted pregnancy but venereal diseases including the most dreaded
of them called AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). The mantra is
that “If you do not have sex, you do not get pregnant or contact venereal
disease”. Some parents drum this into the head of their kids. Back in the
days when I was in the final year of my University, I met a girl. Though
we remained good friends, we never took our friendship to the next level.
It was later in life that she explained her fears then to me. She opened
up and told me what I could never have thought was possible. Her mother
warned her that if a man ‘touches’ her, she would be pregnant. She grew up
with that message in her head and was ruled by it, that even a kiss would
make her pregnant. Even though at the time, she was considered a big girl,
but she knew next to nothing about sexuality. She concluded that if she
didn’t have sex, she would not get pregnant. She did not know anything
about ovulation cycle or how it worked. She knew everything about most
issues at the time, but was so dumb about man and woman issues. It was too
complicated to her since she had a bottom-line: no sex, no pregnancy. It
was way after her graduation that she knew what was going on. But hers was
an exception. There are other girls that threw overboard whatever was told
to her by their mothers about sex.
Many people like her grow up everyday very ignorant of their body and how
it works. In this day and age, teens want to experiment. No matter what
you tell them, and no matter how strict you are, they will get their
information from their peer groups or through the internet or movies and
pop music. Whether you want to talk to them about sex or not, somebody
else would do the job for you. May be in the manner you will not like, but
someone else will do it for you. We have to be close to our kids, be open
to them and be ready to tackle the most difficult issue of sex. If they
hear the truth from you, it will help to clear all kinds of doubts and
suspicions from their mind. What worked in the time of our fathers does
not work now. Morality was a virtue during their time. Now things are
different. I could remember the first day my big sister visited my uncle
at Onitsha in the early eighties wearing a pair of jean trouser bought for
her by my elder brother that just came back from the States. My uncle had
a fit! You could then imagine how my mother felt when my sister came home
to visit my parents in the village. But now even in interior villages,
girls wearing trousers is just as normal as if it involves their male
counterparts. Time has changed.
I am not saying that we should buy them condoms or contraceptives or teach
them the graphics about sex. What I am saying is that we have to not only
stress abstinence and the virtue of sex after marriage, but also we should
not shy away from teaching them about how to protect themselves. It is
good to teach them that their bodies are the temple of God and urge teach
them the virtue of morality. However, abstinence sounds good to the ear,
but how many people can do without sex? With the youthful blood running in
their veins, I doubt it if most young men and women could ‘hold their
fire’ until after marriage. Contraception should be at the last resort. It
should be the exception and not the rule. Teaching our teens about
contraception is not teaching them sexual immorality.
On the contrary, if you do not teach them about contraception, how are you
going to tackle the issue of when they become pregnant or get a girl
pregnant? If you do not teach them prevention, how are you going to deal
with the resultant contraction of HIV/AIDS or other venereal diseases? If
you do not let them know about prevention, how is your economic situation
going to fare if they bring kids in the world which neither you nor them
are prepared for taking into cognizance the economic realities of our
time? If they are ignorant of the consequences of unprotected sex, how are
they going to progress in life knowing that their own lives is tied up now
with the arrival of a baby they are neither physically, psychologically
financially prepared to cater for? If you keep them in the dark about
sexuality, how will you feel if as young teens, they die during child
births? And how are you going to deal with the dilemma of choosing between
abortion, adoption and having to keep the baby and go through what it
takes to raise a child you are unprepared for?
I have an uncle who was professor in one of Nigerian Universities in 1989.
He and his wife are devout Catholics and contraception was out of the
question. They were practicing Billings Method successfully for over 20
years of marriage. However, it failed them once! The wife at the time was
approaching 50 years of age. Their last child at the time was already 12
years old and in Secondary School. When she was told by her doctor that
she was pregnant, it was like a huge joke. She never believed that it was
possible considering her age and the fact that they have practiced natural
family planning for years. The doctor advised them that for her health,
abortion was the only option! Moreover, chances were that the baby would
be abnormal when delivered taking into consideration her age. It was
devastating news to them. But being anti-abortion due to their faith, they
decided to risk it. It was the toughest decision they have faced in their
entire life. Finally, when the baby was delivered, they found out that he
had “Down Syndrome”. They named him ‘Chinedu’-God directs me. They had to
live with the problem that comes with having to raise a new baby with
special needs. Chinedu is now about 20 years old, but they still care for
her as a baby. He is a cross which they had carried for almost 20 years
now, but if they had used protection, Chinedu would not have been born in
the first place and they would have been saved from all these.
It is wrong for people to equate sex education to sexual permissiveness.
They are not the same thing. We have to face reality and stop pretending.
It is the holier-than-thou people that do worse. AIDS is real. Even grown
men and women are guilty of this. Many people are not necessarily against
contraception because of their religious belief, but they hate using
condoms because they are not ‘natural’. They rather enjoy the pleasure of‘flesh to flesh’ despite the already known consequences. Then who do you
blame?
Abortion is a crime in Nigeria . It is criminal under the relevant
Criminal Code and Penal Code, but does it stop abortion in Nigeria ? Every
chemist in every corner performs abortion in Nigeria even though it is a
crime. That is the truth. I have seen people that die out of abortions
that were carried out by these chemists. Some develop complications that
occasion their wombs being removed by specialist doctors to save their
lives. This happens every time. This would have been avoided with a better
job of stressing contraception.
We should stress the dangers and the ills of abortion, but we should not
stop there. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, killing of any kind is
wrong. Why do we speak forcefully and so passionately against abortion as
killing of human being, but not forcefully against killing of already born
kids? Why do we shout ‘blue murder’ against abortion but are not forceful
enough against wars that destroy innocent children. Why should we denounce
abortion but we are ready to send teenagers to die in senseless wars be it
in Liberia , Sierra Leone or Iraq ? Many people of the world speak out
forcefully against abortion, but are not speaking out in like manner
against hunger and starvation, AIDS and other diseases that have killed
millions of children all over the world. It is like saying “if you are
killed in your mother’s womb, it is an abomination. But if you are killed
outside the womb, it is ok.”
I think that the Catholic Church should as a matter of urgency lift this
ban on contraceptives. This hard-line posture by the church and other
religious groups never worked and would never work now or in the future.
We should preach anti-abortion, but at the same time, we have to push
contraception as the way to reduce the scourge of AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases, unwanted and unprepared for pregnancies and poverty.
We should stress abstinence and adoption without forgetting the old saying“prevention is better than cure”.
By Chukwudi Nwokoye
*Chukwudi Nwokoye can be reached at
nwokoyeac@hotmail.com