‘We’re ready to fight’: activists brace as US anti-rights figures descend on Africa

Ultra-conservative campaigners fly in for ‘family values’ conferences to share tactics with African allies who oppose abortion and LGBTQ+ rights

Jessie Williams
Fri 9 May 2025

Advocates for sexual, reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights in Africa are bracing themselves for an influx of some of the most powerful, ultra-conservative campaigners from the US, Poland, Switzerland and the Netherlands over the coming months.

The prominent campaigners, who all oppose abortion, transgender and LGBTQ+ rights, and are against sexuality education, are due to speak at a series of conferences focused on African “family values” and “national sovereignty”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/may/09/africa-family-values-anti-rights-conferences-conservative-christian-abortion-lgbtq-gender-uganda-kenya-rwanda

09.05.2025

Commentary

Africa Christian Professionals Forum

Alliance Defending Freedom

Ann Kioko

Anti-Homosexuality Act

Austin Ruse

Bettina Roska

Center for Family and Human Rights

Christian Council International

CitizenGO

Fatima Maada Bio

Henk Jan van Schothorst

Joy Asasira

Julius Maada Bio

MSI Reproductive Choices

National Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Nelly Munyasia

Okwara Masafu

Pan-African Conference on Family Values

Purposeful

Ramatu Bangura

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

Saoyo Tabitha Griffith

Sarah Shaw

Sharon Slater

Southern Poverty Law Center

Women’s Probono Initiative

Sierra Leone debates decriminalizing abortion as women and girls endanger their lives

By CAITLIN KELLY
March 24, 2025

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — When she got pregnant at 16, Fatou Esther Jusu was terrified that it would derail her future.

Abortion is illegal in Sierra Leone. Fearing judgment from her family, she took friends’ advice and bought misoprostol, a drug whose uses include abortion, from a local pharmacy. It didn’t work. Desperate, she tried again and miscarried.

“I went to the toilet… and the baby came out,” she said. She fainted and was taken to a hospital, where she pleaded with doctors not to tell her parents.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/sierra-leone-abortion-legalize-health-77dd89c92bfea5ed84db2d42acbebc5d

Sierra Leone is on the brink of legalising abortion. We must not allow the US far right to infiltrate and stop us

Religious extremists from the US are bolstering local opposition by pouring money and messaging into the country under the guise of supporting ‘family values’

Dr Ramatu Bangura
Sat 25 Jan 2025

Sierra Leone is on the precipice of making history in its parliament this week. A new bill being debated would see a deadly centuries-old British colonial law abolished and monumental strides made to protect the safety of women and girls.

For a country where sky-high maternal deaths are a national emergency, the safe motherhood and reproductive health care bill is a lifeline. The new legislation would decriminalise abortion and provide that any girl or woman, regardless of economic status, can seek the reproductive care needed from a qualified medical professional – whether that involves the decision to conceive, to access contraception or to make the difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/25/sierra-leone-is-on-the-brink-of-legalising-abortion-we-must-not-allow-the-us-far-right-to-infiltrate-and-stop-us

After fall of Roe, emboldened religious conservatives lobby to restrict abortion in Africa

BY CARA ANNA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 1, 2023

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Nowhere in the world has a higher rate of unsafe abortions or unintended pregnancies than sub-Saharan Africa, where women often face scorn for becoming pregnant before marriage.

Efforts to legalize and make abortions safer in Africa were shaken when the U.S. Supreme Court ended the national right to an abortion a year ago. Within days, Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio declared that his government would decriminalize abortion “at a time when sexual and reproductive health rights for women are being either overturned or threatened.”

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/africa-abortion-supreme-court-limits-9b02bb07cc50967804fb84704891baf7

Teenage girls turn to rat poison as unsafe abortion ‘epidemic’ spirals

Abortion is illegal in Sierra Leone, forcing women to abort unwanted pregnancies via dangerous practices. The consequences can be fatal

By Tom Collins
13 December 2022

Fanella Bola lay against the perimeter walls of a hospital in Sierra Leone and cried at the thought of going through with her pregnancy. The 17-year-old had been turned away from almost every hospital in the capital city of Freetown, where abortion is illegal.

As she dried her tears and prepared to trudge home, the schoolgirl was approached by a market woman who said there was another way.

Continued: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/women-and-girls/teenage-girls-turn-rat-poison-unsafe-abortion-epidemic-spirals/

Sierra Leone backs bill to legalise abortion and end colonial-era law

Country hails ‘monumental step’ towards expanding reproductive rights at a time when the US has overturned them

Emmanuel Akinwotu, west Africa correspondent
Wed 6 Jul 2022

Ministers in Sierra Leone have taken a major step towards decriminalising abortion and overturning the country’s colonial-era law, in a move hailed by campaigners and women’s rights activists.

President Julius Maada Bio said his cabinet had unanimously backed a bill on risk-free motherhood, which would expand access to abortion in a country where terminations are only permitted when a mother’s life is at risk.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/06/sierra-leone-backs-bill-to-legalise-abortion-and-end-colonial-era-law

As US Guts Reproductive Rights, Sierra Leone Moves to Decriminalize Abortion

BY Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams
July 2, 2022

As the U.S. Supreme Court and Republican-controlled state legislatures void the constitutional right to abortion in the United States, Sierra Leone on Friday joined the growing list of African nations that have moved to protect the health and rights of pregnant people by decriminalizing the medical procedure.

“At a time in the world when sexual and reproductive health rights for women are either being overturned or threatened, we are proud that Sierra Leone can once again lead with progressive reform,” Julius Maada Bio, president of the West African nation, said during his closing remarks at the 10th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in the capital city of Freetown.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/as-us-guts-reproductive-rights-sierra-leone-moves-to-decriminalize-abortion/