Sierra Leone must show leadership, and pass the Safe Motherhood Bill
By Dr. Ramatu Bangura, Co-CEO Purposeful
In 2022, President Bio was a special guest at the 10th All Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights (ACSHR), which, for the first time, was held in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The event brought together over 950 participants from across the globe, including policymakers, politicians, diplomats, activists, as well as young girls and women. At the global gathering, the President announced that the Sierra Leone cabinet had unanimously approved the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Bill. The room erupted in applause; everyone else stood up and clapped. This June marks the third anniversary since that historical conference and groundbreaking announcement, and the world is still waiting for Sierra Leone to fulfill its promise of leadership, as a country that champions the rights of young girls and women.
Women represent over 50% of the voting public. They are active members of political parties. Their rights and interests are regularly trotted out, when it is time to signal progress as a society. If leaders from either political party— whether Members of Parliament, members of the Cabinet or the President himself— truly care about girls and women, they would pass laws that make their most basic human rights nonnegotiable. The passage of the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Bill is a fundamental first step in that direction. It would be a clear and bold statement that Sierra Leonean girls and women deserve to live and not die because of pregnancy, whether wanted or unwanted.
Of course, this legislation alone cannot solve the complex problem of maternal mortality and reproductive injustice, but it would save lives. The absence of a clear legal and regulatory framework actively contributes to confusion, gaps in service delivery, and systemic harm. Without a comprehensive law on reproductive health, our medical professionals and facilities are left vulnerable, girls and women are denied clarity on their rights, and policy remains subject to politics, not public health.
Currently, Sierra Leone has one of the highest maternal mortality rates (MMR) in the world, according to our own 2019 survey data, and although our country’s MMR has been declining, it is not acceptable that 717 out of every 100,000 girls and women die as a result of conditions linked to pregnancy. The Safe Motherhood Bill provides a way for our country to further reduce our MMR and save the lives of women. The bill contains clear standards for antenatal care, emergency obstetric services, adolescent reproductive health, family planning, postnatal services, and the treatment of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
In recent years we have seen Sierra Leone become a battleground for rights. Local far right civil society and religious groups, with the support of far-right American evangelicals, have taken a stand against the passage of the Safe Motherhood Bill, further endangering the lives of Sierra Leonean girls and women. Bowing to pressure from the religious right is a dangerous step in the wrong direction. This is a democratic country, respected the world over for its track record of respect for religious diversity. This also means governing our country according to secular norms that serve everybody and not allowing religious zealots to hold sway over politicians and policy makers, who have a duty to make decisions in the best interest of the most marginalised among us. If policymakers truly want to strengthen families, and protect women, then they need to pass legislation that allows us to have the reproductive healthcare that we need and end the pandemic of sexual and gender-based violence that is prevalent in our beloved country.
Health professionals, lawyers, and women’s rights activists began the process that led to the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Bill well over a decade ago. Its current iteration is the result of 13 years of legal reviews, political debates, and public health advocacy. Its genesis began in 2012, when the Law Reform Commission reviewed the Offences Against the Person Act, which criminalised abortion, and the subsequent introduction and passage of the Safe Abortion Bill in 2015. Onike Spencer-Coker, Legal Practitioner and member of the technical working group and steering committee of the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Bill, firmly debunked claims that efforts to pass this bill are new, when she stated in an interview:
“We’re forgetting the fact that this bill didn’t originate with the declaration of our current President in 2022. It’s not a sudden thing. Those involved have worked on this for over the past 10 years…So the current narrative that’s running – that this Safe Motherhood Bill is based on Western influence – that narrative is all nonsense, by people who actually know nothing about the history of how this bill came to be. It’s frustrating, but predictable.”
I agree wholeheartedly with Spencer-Coker – the current impasse in which we find ourselves is beyond frustrating. It is also irresponsible. It appears that our legislators are holding back on passing a bill that would create an enabling policy environment for the protection of girls and women. If MPs truly care about women, and love and respect the constituencies they are placed in power to serve, then they must put the interests of those communities above the polarising discourses that conservatives, and the religious right posit.
Three years ago, the President assured the world that his government had the best interests of girls and women at heart. We believed him because he has consistently affirmed this position. To the rest of the legislative bodies, we say, now is the time to act. The eyes of the world are on Sierra Leone.
Pass the Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Act now.