Rochas And His SSG Disagree On Abortion Law

MORE than a year after Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha signed into law the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Bill, a portion of the law sparked protest yesterday on the streets of Owerri, the state capital.

Catholics, after a two-day Pro-life International Conference organised by the Archdiocese of Owerri demanded the portion that gives a woman right to medical abortion.

The portion also pitted the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Tony Anwuka, against his boss who signed the bill into law on May 29.

Anwuka, who represented the governor at the conference said he was expressing his personal feeling as a “knight of St. Mulumba of the Catholic Church”.

The SSG faulted the inclusion of Section 40 (1) (i), which allows “right to medical abortion” by women who need it in the state.

Okorocha signed the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Bill into law on May 29 after the House of Assembly passed it and sent it to the executive for assent.

The Imo State of Nigeria 2012 Law No 12, Section 40 (1) (i) states as follows: “Every woman shall have the right to enjoy reproductive rights, including right to medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest and where the continued pregnancy endangers the life or physical, mental, psychological or emotional health of the mother.”

But Anwuka condemned the inclusion of the portion which allows “medical abortion” in the body of the law, saying: “As a Knight of Saint Molumba of the Catholic Church, I will ensure that this portion of the law is expunged and abrogated soonest.”

According to him, all Catholics must and should vote for pro-life and no government should violate this right in whatever form including enactment of laws.

Anwuka said: “Every person should have the courage to preserve life rather than destroy it; medical doctors, pharmacists and all healthcare givers as well as government should have a rethink because if they have a life, they should think only about how to keep other lives and not how to terminate these at whatever stage.”

The SSG applauded the position of the National Assembly on same-sex marriage, saying: “For the first time, I felt proud for their collective action to make sure that this new cancer that is eating up the world-same–sex marriage, has to stop before its development in our land.”

The Catholic Archbishop of Owerri and Metropolitan of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, Anthony Obinna, described the law as against human and natural justice, saying “the assent of the law by the governor took the Catholic Church by surprise, but we would do everything possible to protest against it until it is repealed”.

Welcoming delegates to the conference, the cleric said the movement of pro-lifers would not be deterred by the current tide in the world, where everything is being done to ensure women are “forced to accept principles that violate God’s laws of procreation”. He said aside the church’s acceptable methods of natural births, no other artificial method, including the use of contraceptives for family planning is morally approved. “Similarly, the use of stem cells in reproduction is against natural laws,” he added.

Other speakers spoke on why Catholic faithful should not be involved in accepting any form of family planning methods which are against the approved methods, such as billings, Rhythm, Temperature and the recent Natural Procreative Technology (NAPROTECH).