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FREETOWN, 27 November 2012 (IRIN) - The new government is responding positively to health workers and youth groups who have long called for a change in the 1861 law banning abortion except in exceptional circumstances.
A draft law which would make abortion legal under certain conditions, is currently waiting to be passed by parliament following the 17 November elections, according to Sas Kargbo, director of Reproductive Health at the Health Ministry.
"The present laws are outdated and violate the rights of the women of Sierra Leone," said Al Saccoh, coordinator of a youth network called the National Youth Coalition of Sierra Leone, adding that the current law contradicts international covenants on human rights that Sierra Leone has signed since 1861.
Campaigners say the unavailability of cheap and safe abortions is leading to severe health risks for women and girls and pushing up the maternal mortality rate.
Brima Kamara, advocacy manager at the Planned Parenthood Association of Sierra Leone, told IRIN: "Because there is no legal framework that gives women the right to choice governing abortion, the present law is killing women."
Sierra Leone has one of the world's highest maternal mortality rates: 890 women die for every 100,000 live births.
It is not clear how many women seek abortions in Sierra Leone each year as so many of them do so clandestinely, but reproductive rights NGO Marie Stopes International estimates at least 40,000 women and girls in Sierra Leone had abortions in 2011.
According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), some 250,000 children across the globe lose their mothers to abortion-related deaths.
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