To abort or not to abort?

Early this week, an Irish woman, Savita Halappanavar, 31, died after making several requests for abortion since her condition couldn’t allow her to carry the foetus. Her death caused international outcry since she was told at one time that abortion was not possible because she was living in a “Catholic country”. With over 50 per cent of its population being Catholics, this issue is also a wakeup call for Rwanda and should reignite the debate. The twin issues of birth control and abortion have been hot topics in religious circles around the world. Conservative churches led by the Roman Catholic Church have maintained that any sexual activity before marriage is a mortal sin, and followers are advised not to have sexual relations outside marriage. Basing on the argument that sexual activity is a preserve for procreation, conservative churches frown upon the use of contraceptives while those who abort are excommunicated from the church until they repent their “sins”. However, in modern times, different Christian churches hold different views about the rightness and wrongness of abortion and using birth control. Liberal Anglican churches often teach that it is acceptable to use birth control, as long as it is not used to encourage or permit promiscuous behaviour. With the world in general and Africa in particular now facing population explosion and the danger of HIV and Aids, does the church still have the moral authority to stop people from using measures that can save their lives and stem dangerous population growth? A number of Catholic clergy interviewed argue that it was God’s will that the earth is filled and anything that kills the ‘seeds of life’ shouldn’t be entertained, citing two biblical examples of Genesis and Deuteronomy to support their stand. “In the book of Genesis, God commanded His people to be “fruitful and multiply” and thus the use of contraception specifically flout this instruction while in Deuteronomy, Onan was killed by God for ‘spilling his seed’ and this is interpreted as a divine condemnation of what is called ‘coitus interruptus’, killing the seeds of life,” a clergy from the Remera Catholic Church argues. He adds that the Catholic Church advocates for “natural family planning” for sexual activity. This, according to him, serves the purpose of bringing married people together in intimacy apart from the purpose of procreation. “When a married couple wants to space out their children, they should practice natural family planning,” he adds. Muslims who are opposed to birth control normally quote the Qur’an as saying, “you should not kill your children for fear of want” (17:31, 6:151) and interpret this as including a ban on contraception as well as infanticide. Supporters of birth control argue that this interpretation is wrong. Abubakar Mwaduma, a Muslim imam, says, “In practice most Muslim authorities permit contraception to preserve the health of the mother or the well-being of the family.” Pastor James Kalinda of Redeemed Christian Assembly Church says: “Abortion ought to be an option as a last resort. As a church, we seek to reduce the need to turn to abortion as the answer to unintended pregnancies.”