By Hassan I. Conteh

The Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Jalikatu Mustapha, says Sierra Leone will soon present in parliament a new bill entitled “Safe Motherhood Bill.”

The proposed law seeks to proffer solutions to reproductive health care challenges faced by particularly pregnant women in Sierra Leone.

One component of it, she says, is designed to provide safe termination of pregnancies by helping pregnant women and girls to have proper medication and access to “quality health facilities.”

Giving a background on the proposed law, Dr. Jalikatu said, the Safe Motherhood Bill is informed by the Safe Abortion Bill of 2015, which was never passed into law following heated debates by MPs, religious leaders and community stakeholders.

While that bill of 2015, the Safe Abortion Bill, primarily focused on the rights for women to abort pregnancies owing to their choices, the proposed bill, Safe Motherhood Bill, she said, is a comprehensive health care bill that speaks to issues related to pregnancy termination, early detection of infections by women, minimization of deaths by women.

“The primary focus is to stop women dying a lot as the bill only seeks to ” regulate” abortions, it is not meant to totally stop abortions, ” says Minister Jalikatu.

She was speaking on Friday 6th December, 2024, during a press briefing organized by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, at Youyi Building, Government Ministerial Block.