Liberia: As Senate Considers Bill to Legalize Abortion, Experts Say Growing Access to Abortion Pills Is Saving Lives

By Joyclyn Wea
October 20, 2025

D. was 18 and had just entered the 12th grade in 2017 when she discovered she was pregnant. Like all teenage students, ambitious for a successful future – in her case as a banker – she feared having a baby would end her dreams. She also feared the shame it would bring to her mother, who had worked hard selling potato greens in a local market to pay for her daughter’s education so she could have a better life.

D.’s sister’s boyfriend offered a solution. He told her there were now pills available that could end the pregnancy safely.

Continued: https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberia-as-senate-considers-bill-to-legalize-abortion-experts-say-growing-access-to-abortion-pills-is-saving-lives/

Dangerous Pregnancy: Unsafe Abortion a Problem for Liberian Teens

Wade Williams, FrontPage Africa
Oct 10, 2025

Monrovia – Pale and weak, Pauline Kule was rushed to the James N. Davis Memorial hospital in July because she had been bleeding profusely. The 19-year-old swallowed 15 pills hoping to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy.

A ninth-grade student, Kule says she was afraid her father would withdraw his financial support if he found out she was pregnant. She says she is not yet ready to be a mother. “I’m a student. When my father gets to know I’m pregnant, he will not sponsor me in school again,” she says.

Continued: https://newnarratives.org/stories/dangerous-pregnancy-unsafe-abortion-a-problem-for-liberian-teens/

10.10.2025

News

Dr. Celia Kohn

Dr. Torsu Y. Jallabah

Joseph Coleman

Liberia Medical and Dental Association

United Nations Population Fund

Liberia – Rural Women’s Plea: “Take the Cassava Sticks From Me”

October 10, 2025

MONROVIA – In a powerful and emotional appeal that left many in tears, rural women’s rights advocate Ma Nowaai Ida Kaiser from Palala, Bong County, stood before hundreds of delegates at the Second National SRHR Conference and made a desperate plea to Liberia’s leadership: “Please take unsafe abortion from me.”

Speaking at the three-day conference themed “Breaking Barriers, Promoting Access to SRHR for All in Liberia,” Ma Nowaai painted a haunting picture of the reality facing rural women who resort to dangerous methods to terminate unwanted pregnancies.

Continued: https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/rural-womens-plea-take-the-cassava-sticks-from-me/

10.10.2025

Commentary

Amplifying Rights Network

Breaking Barriers Promoting Access to SRHR for All in Liberia

Dr. Dazon Dixon Diallo

Help a Mother & Newborn Initiative Launches SRHR Advocacy Campaign Amid Alarming Health Statistics in Liberia

June 3, 2025
By David A. Yates

Monrovia – In response to the growing threat of unsafe abortion and the need to raise awareness about Liberia’s revised Public Health Law, the Help a Mother & Newborn Initiative (HAMNI) has launched the “Echo Change Project” in Montserrado and Margibi counties.

The six-month initiative is a community-led advocacy and awareness campaign aimed at empowering youth and local communities to engage in informed discussions around Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). The project places a strong focus on unsafe abortion and Liberia’s evolving legal framework.

Continued: https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/help-a-mother-newborn-initiative-launches-srhr-advocacy-campaign-amid-alarming-health-statistics-in-liberia/#google_vignette

03.06.2025

News

Echo Change Project

Help a Mother & Newborn Initiative

SALI aims to mitigate Liberia’s 38,000 illegal abortion

Unsafe abortion is among top causes of maternal illnesses and deaths and the treatment of abortion complications drains resources of health systems.

Lincoln G. Peters
March 20, 2024

A record number of more than 38,000 illegal abortions has been recorded to have taken place in Liberia.

The figure is found in a joint study on abortion incidences in Liberia conducted by the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the African Population and Health Research Center, and the Guttmacher Institute.

Continued; https://thenewdawnliberia.com/sali-aims-to-mitigate-liberias-38000-illegal-abortion/

20.03.2024

News

African Population and Health Research Center

Clinton Health Access Initiative

Liberia – Unsafe abortion threatens women’s health

--As CSOs seek a joint alliance to target the menace

New Dawn
February 19, 2024

A 2023 report released by the Ministry of Health revealed that about 38,779 induced abortions took place in Liberia in 2021. The Ministry released the report in partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), and Guttmacher.

This translates to an induced abortion rate of 30.7 per 1,000 women of reproductive age and an induced abortion ratio of 229 abortions per 1,000 live births.

Continued: https://thenewdawnliberia.com/unsafe-abortion-threatens-womens-health/

19.02.2024

News

African Population and Health Research Center

Clinton Health Access Initiative

Liberia: Abortion Care Is Health Care

Nov 30, 2023
By Siatta Scott Johnson

In Liberia, 16% of all pregnancies end in abortion, according to a recent study conducted in Liberia between October 2021 and March 2022 by the Ministry of Health and its partners, Clinton Health Access Initiative, the African Population and Health Research Center, and the Guttmacher Institute. It revealed that the national abortion incidence for the year 2021 was 38,779.

The revised Public Healthcare Law that will ensure the improvement in the lives of every Liberian, the protection of rights to choose and make informed decisions on their healthcare, and access to quality and gender response delivery, is being discussed in the Liberian Senate.

Continued: https://www.liberianobserver.com/liberia-abortion-care-health-care

Liberia: West Point Women Sensitized Girls on Unsafe Abortion, FGM

10/18/2023
DAVID A. YATES

The West Point Women for Health and Development Organization (WPWHDO) has sensitized young women and girls about unsafe abortion and the harmful practices of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the country.

Unsafe abortion is a major contributor to Liberia’s “very high rate of maternal mortality,” according to a 2020 report by the World Health Organization. It was one of just eight African countries that ranked that high.

Continued: https://www.liberianobserver.com/liberia-west-point-women-sensitized-girls-unsafe-abortion-fgm

18.10.2023

News

female genital mutilation

International Campaign for Women’s Right to Safe Abortion

maternal mortality

Nelly S. Cooper

West Point Women for Health and Development Organization

Liberia’s New Health Law Among Most Liberal in Africa for Abortion

--- But faces hurdle in Senate

Sep 1, 2023
TINA S. MEHNPAINE

When Teta graduated from high school in 2015, she had big plans: attend college and become a medical doctor. But when the then-17-year-old discovered she was pregnant, that bright future was cast into doubt.

The father of the unborn child, her boyfriend of four years, denied the baby was his. Afraid of the shame and disgrace that would come with being an unwed teenage mother, Teta sought an abortion.

“I was scared and confused,” said Teta. “I had no plans of becoming a mother at age seventeen, my family and everybody looked up to me.”

Continued: https://www.liberianobserver.com/liberia-liberias-new-health-law-among-most-liberal-africa-abortion

Liberia: Should Liberia Legalize Abortion?

Published at: 08/25/2023
ARTICLE BY STAFF EDITOR

Two prominent health experts have called upon the Senate to align with the House in legalizing abortion, but it should do so within the first trimester of pregnancy, setting the cut-off point at 12 weeks gestation.

The experts --- Tolbert Nyenswah and Mardia Stone -- argued that the legal change would reduce the chances of complications that might arise from unsafe, backdoor procedures. They, however, noted the changes should be at 12 weeks and not the 18 weeks proposed by the House --- as the former significantly reduces the risks associated with abortion compared to the former.

Continued: http://www.liberianobserver.com/liberia-should-liberia-legalize-abortion

25.08.2023