ABUJA, MAY 29, 2015 (CISA)-Nigerian Catholic Bishops have said no to abortion for the escapees’ girls and women who are pregnant as a result of rape by Boko Haram.
“Killing the babies conceived through rape by the terrorist is the most inhumane action to take. The babies are innocent of the crimes against their mothers and it is wrong to punish them for their fathers’ sins and offenses,” Bishop Anselm Umoren, an auxiliary of the Catholic Diocese of Abuja who chairs the Nigerian bishops’ Health Committee said.
The bishops noted that the Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria and Diocesan structures were helping support the pregnant women and girls just like government agencies, civil society groups and faith-based organizations were doing.
Bishop Anselm urged the affected to show maternal love for the innocent babies that they carried; rejecting the suggestions of mass abortions for the pregnant women adding that would mean repaying violence with more brutality.
The Bishops also advocated for the establishment of crisis pregnancy centers to help the pregnant women and other victims.
Those rescued from terror and abortion will be presented for adoption to Nigerians willing to accept abandoned, rejected or motherless and fatherless babies into their families,” he said.
Since Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009, over 15,000 people have been killed and 1.5 million people have fled their homes. Since 2014, the group has kidnapped more than 2,000 women and girls, including a notorious raid on a secondary school in Chibok that abducted 276 girls. Of these girls, 219 remain unaccounted for.
