Not in a million years“A river that forgets its source will soon dry up,” is an African proverb that probably says it all about abortion.Why is it that people so easily forget the source of their lives that they will act harshly to prevent other lives from living?The moment a child is formed in the womb as a fertilised egg, then it should be given chance to be born into a fully blossomed life, a life full of blessings and curses, a life cupped with prosperity and poverty, but at least, a life.Statistics show that unintended pregnancies account for almost half of all pregnancies in the world, an ugly truth which means that if it’s not me, then it’s my neighbour who was born out of an unwanted pregnancy.However, after experiencing life, what gives anyone the authority to determine the fate of an unborn child and prevent it from experiencing what this world has in store?Countries all over Europe have legalised abortion in all its forms; in other words, a woman can abort for whichever reason, be it that she unwillingly got pregnant or that she simply doesn’t want to have the baby.In Africa, other than, to protect the woman’s physical health, South Africa is the only country that legalised abortion for all reasons, and this draws me to one fundamental question.Must we encourage abortion now, after two millenniums of viewing it as an omen to our society? If we do so, we are doing nothing but simply admitting to being wrong for considering abortion a punishable offence all along.Let us say we legalise it, what use will it be when statistics start indicating that abortions have gone up? Safe abortion clinics have been on the lips of those proposing for it. They say that we should legalise it, create safe abortion clinics because many women are scared of society, and will carry it out secretly and dangerously.Legalising this scourge is tantamount to accepting failure! It means that no matter how much we’ve tried to teach the younger generations about abstinence and safe sex practices, we have been unsuccessful and therefore, prefer to give highway to a fully blossomed “sex and dump” spree.Cases that have been brought up as genuine enough to push a woman to abort are; if she was raped or if the child was diagnosed with a fatal illness that may not allow them to live beyond their juvenile years. Nevertheless, society is full of successful people born that way, whose lives were doomed by doctors, but have lived tremendously when given a chance. With all due respect, imagine if the mothers of such people decided to abort them.If a rape victim does abort, will their emotional pain be healed or only made worse when they begin to understand that they murdered their child, who had no clue as to whether he was conceived out of rape?When the medics say that the child has a terrible illness that will kill them, hard as it may seem, the child must be given a chance to live for that small amount of time that the doctors said.None of us was born perfect and there is no law, which says that children must be born with no deformities!Yes, in Rwanda, we do have a high rate of abortion, particularly amongst the youth and a solution must be found sooner than later. I however do not see how legalising abortion is the ultimate answer to this problem, other than concerted efforts to continue sensitising our people about the dangers of unprotected sex.
