Members of CitizenGO , a Catholic activist organization, are rallying for
signatures to stop lawmakers in Liberia from legalizing abortion in the West
African country.
Senators in Liberia will be considering, within two weeks starting Wednesday,
August 23, the continuation of the debate on the Public Health Bill that
contains many matters, including the issue of abortion.
In their petition launched Tuesday, August 22, CitizenGo express concern that
allowing Liberians to abort whenever they feel like will lead to tens of
thousands of lives being lost annually in the country.
“This bill would introduce a very big change to legislation in Liberia and would
directly lead to the death of thousands of innocent babies through abortion in
Liberia,” the Catholic pro-lifers say.
Under Liberia’s current law, abortion is allowed in exceptional circumstances
that include where the mother’s life is at risk, rape/incest/felonious intercourse,
and disability of the fetus. “These are rare situations,” the Catholic activists
say.
They express concern that the Public Health Bill will scrap Liberia’s current
abortion law and replace it with an extreme law that allows abortion, for any
reason, on demand, up to when the baby in the womb is at 14 weeks
gestation.
“It has been estimated that this change from allowing abortion in exceptional
circumstances to allowing abortion on demand would lead to the lives of
40,000 babies being lost to abortion in Liberia every single year,” the
members of CitizenGo say.
The Catholic activists allege that “the Swedish government and other foreign
NGOs” have been creating and funding organizations in Liberia to lobby for
the legalization of abortion.
“There are credible allegations of bribery including large cash payments of
$20,000 each being made to senators from the Government of Sweden for
voting in support of the bill,” they say, and add, “Foreign Government
interference in the democratic process of Liberia is totally unacceptable and a
form of neo-colonialism that you must reject.”
The activists have appealed for signatures to stop the Public Health Bill in
Liberia, saying, “This Bill can be stopped. Please
visit http://stopliberiaabortionbill.com/ now to use the free easy tool to send a
message to senators asking them to vote against the bill.”
By Agnes AineahACI Africa).
