Dear Editor, If the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) is really geared towards sexual and reproductive health, then arguments to legalize abortion should not even be considered because legalization of abortion contradicts its mandate.
Efforts to circumvent the social issues that prevail will be futile if the NFPB continues to make the distribution of condoms and contraceptives a priority, but ignore the post-distribution effects, because sexual and reproductive health ought to be inclusive of the repercussions of sexual behavior.
Additionally, the NFPB ought to underscore abstinence as the consummate solution, instead of trying to cure what could have been prevented.
The legalization of abortion is not only a moral issue but also a social issue. In the event that the very act of committing murder does not make one ‘cringe’, removing the only portion of legal framework equates granting liberty to do as one desires. Therein lies a great concern for the teens and adolescents, rather than about the consenting adults, because, should abortion be legalized, a young teen would no longer see the need to exercise caution or think about the implications of ‘reckless’ sex as everything would become permissible and nothing would be punishable.
The erosion of morals and values, vibrations of sexually explicit lyrics over the airwaves, loss of the sacredness of sex, violent explosion of sexual hormones in our young people, roaming, misguided young boys and girls all within a heavily sex-saturated society need to be countered with discipline and self-control. Inasmuch as the law does not solve the entire problem, it offers some amount of guidance in that capacity. Legalizing abortion would create a multiplicity of other problems; problems we are already fighting desperately to solve.
Instead of the NFPB “…ending or at least stemming the tide of unsafe sexual practices”, they would be encouraging more reckless sex and less safe sex. Genuinely think on these things.
Shanique Shand,
The Love March Movement.
lovemarchmovement@gmail.com