Lagos State has issued new abortion guidelines.
The 40-page policy document, titled “Lagos State Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications,” establishes guidelines for safe pregnancy termination within the framework of Lagos State criminal law.
Dr. Olusegun Ogboye, Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, presented and launched the document at a stakeholders’ engagement, explaining that while therapeutic abortion is legal in Lagos State.
He stated that the policy document arose from the need to provide evidence-based data and information to health workers in the public and private sectors who have the necessary skills and training to provide safe terminations in order to reduce preventable deaths.
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According to a statement from the Lagos State Ministry of Health, “In 2011, the Lagos State House of Assembly updated the criminal code, providing for abortion to save a woman’s life and protect her physical health.” While physical health is covered by the Lagos legal framework, legal services have not been available in the Lagos State health sector.
“This document provides information on relevant laws applicable in Lagos State while providing standards and best practices with regards to legal indications, pre and post procedure care, methods and monitoring. I must state here that this document has undergone wide consultation with relevant technical stakeholders within the legal and health service context in the State.”
Ogboye explained that the Safe Engage project, led by the Lagos Ministry of Health and hosted by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Nigeria, began in 2018 with support from the Population Reference Bureau.
He went on to say that stakeholders in the Stater health sector collaborated with key opinion leaders in Lagos and the South-West region to create a tailored advocacy tool for terminations in the legal context.
He stated that the Safe Engage project’s advocacy messages focused on two immediate outcomes: ensuring that safe abortion services were available within legal parameters in Lagos and domesticating the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, which supports women in terminating a pregnancy caused by rape or incest.
He said, “To guide the implementation, one of the follow up recommendations of the project was the adaptation of the National Standards and Guidelines for Safe Termination of Pregnancy within Legal Indications within the Lagos State context. The Federal Ministry of Health had developed and disseminated the national guidelines on safe termination of pregnancy which highlights the compendium of conditions and circumstances under which termination of pregnancy could be instituted.
“The guideline was intended to build the capacity of health professionals to identify pregnancies for which legal termination could be instituted. Marie Stopes International in Nigeria in collaboration with the Population Reference Bureau proposed to support the State government to adapt the document.”
The Permanent Secretary explained that the process for adapting National guidelines included technical meetings to discuss sections of the law supporting safe abortion and conditions permitted within the legal framework to save mothers’ lives and physical health; and validation meetings with the document’s broader stakeholders.
“All that hand work has culminated in today’s dissemination of the guidelines. We hope this dissemination today will help guide health providers to provide this service within the ambit of the law,” Ogboye added.
Earlier in his remarks, Mr. Emmanuel Ajah, Country Director of a leading reproductive health organization, Marie Stopes International Organization Nigeria (MSION), stated that abortion is not illegal in Nigeria, but rather restricted.
According to Ajah, a significant number of health providers are unaware of the legal indications for safe pregnancy termination.
“The domestication of this policy provides that needed guidance to healthcare providers on medical conditions in pregnancy that pose a high risk to the woman’s life and health if the pregnancy progresses to term, and on the standard management of abortion within the extent of the law in Lagos state. This policy is a demonstration of the commitment of the Lagos state government to improving maternal health, especially mitigating the impact of unsafe abortion practices in the State,” he stated.
Prof. Innocent Ujah, Vice Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences, Otukpo, and one of the Consultants who developed the document, stated that the enunciation, deployment, and use of these guidelines will save the lives of pregnant women and women whose physical or mental health would be jeopardized if their pregnancies continued.
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