My Turn

Support abortion, risk your vote!

 

Honorable members of Parliament (MPs) the ball is in your court. We are at that point when the democratic principles of representation fail the public conscience.

We are hearing that the “Termination of Pregnancy Bill” may be tabled in Parliament in the next sitting. The pressure to legalise the termination of human life is finally here.

Will legislators, who are essentially products of some woman’s pregnancy, support this  Bill?

The Bill is a measure of our legislators’ moral principles and consciousness. It will gauge how they value human life, its sacredness and sanctity.

While there is a heated debate, the underlining factor is that it is a negation and deprivation of some beings development.

Does Malawi have an immoral Parliament that can vehemently pass it? If some insanity prevails in Parliament, President Peter Mutharika will be our last hope.  I do not foresee him repeating the mistake of assenting to unpopular bills, like the Land Act, which sober MPs can easily revoke it to Parliament.

Regardless of the circumstances our mothers found themselves in, kept us to full development and here we are. Not all of us are planned products  of our parents. Some of us came in this world by our parents’ “mistake” which they owned.

Human life is sacred.  It begins at conception. Termination of the human life at any point is killing and not permitted.  Lost in a maze to defend abortion, pro-abortionists centre their arguments on linguistic and semantic loopholes.

Some argue that abortion is right on “interest principles”, meaning that the interest of the mother should be respected. What about the interests of the unborn child?

Others argue that it should be allowed if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. What if the conduct of the mother threatens the life of the unborn child, should the life of the mother be terminated?

Claims by institutions like the Coalition for Prevention of Unsafe Abortions (Copua) are illogical and wanting. They defend termination of life on financial grounds.  Malawi loses MK300 million per annum in post-abortal care expenses, they claim. They attribute 17 percent of maternal deaths to unsafe abortions.

Human life is more valuable than any earthly material. The pro-abortion campaign is misplaced.

If indeed it is true that we have more cases of abortions in the country, I would like to dismiss outright the definition of “unsafe abortion” as there is nothing safe about abortion. Our efforts are misplaced.

The key questions would be:  (1) Why do we have many abortion cases? Legislating termination of pregnancy will not address this problem.

(2) Why many women and girls upon conceiving resort to abortion? The said bill will not address this challenge.

(3) Why is 17 percent of the maternal mortality cases in Malawi attributed to abortions? The proposed new law has no answers to this; it is not addressing the problems claimed.

(4) Why do we have many cases of “unwanted” or “unprepared” pregnancies, as they are called?. Why do we have recurrent medical dilemma cases which beg the question whose life to protect, that of the mother or unborn child?

Malawians, let’s not bow down to some isolated and emotive case by case issues to draw national generalisations.

The termination of Pregnancy  Bill in our context is misplaced. In case the Bill is forced into Parliament, I would urge the Speaker of Parliament Richard Msowoya to call for an open voting on this.

Malawians, having entrusted our MPs with the responsibility to make pro-poor and pro-life laws. We will be interested to see who among our MPs has no respect for human life.

The anti-abortion message is crystal clear and unequivocal in Malawi. Support it, you risk losing your vote.

I would like to end by warning our MPs. Yesterday it was contraception. Today it’s abortion and same-sex “marriage.” Will it be widespread euthanasia tomorrow? Then what?

Once abortion is universally accepted, what logical arguments will stop euthanasia and other forms of murder and brutality? n

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