SIERRA Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma has once more refused to signal an invoice legalising abortion, saying it must be put to a referendum.
MPs unanimously handed it in December, however, Mr Koroma refused to signal it after protests by non-secular leaders.
After consultations, MPs returned the invoice to him a final month, unaltered.
The regulation would enable ladies to terminate a pregnancy in any circumstances as much as 12 weeks and in instances of incest, rape and foetal impairment as much as 24 weeks.
Abortion is at present unlawful in Sierra Leone under any circumstances.
Human rights teams, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and 5 Sierra Leonean organisations, wrote to President Koroma in February urging him to provide the invoice with his assent.
Unsafe abortions – often resulting from restrictive laws and poor access to sexual and reproductive health services, information, and education – is one of the main factors contributing to maternal deaths in Sierra Leone,” their letter mentioned.
The World Health Organization estimates that Sierra Leone has the world’s highest maternal mortality ratio at 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births in the last 12 months.
The BBC’s Umaru Fofana, within the capital, Freetown, reported that the abortion difficulty has led to heated debates and protests on both sides.
President Koroma has now referred the controversial laws to the Constitutional Review Committee, which is currently reviewing the structure.
