Ugandan archbishop calls upon govt to reject pressure from population control advocates to permit abortion under any circumstance

The Archbishop of Uganda has urged his government to resist pressure from overseas aid groups and lobbyists to relax the  country’s abortion laws. In an address given at All Saints Church in Mbarara on 6 Sept 2016 the Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali said talk of permitting abortion on demand was unsettling. “As a church, we strongly condemn this, it’s murder, killing, nobody has a right to take way life, it’s ungodly,” he said according to a report printed in the Monitor. Abortion is legal in Uganda if the pregnancy proves to be a threat to the life of the mother. Current laws permit a woman to terminate her pregnancy if two physicians state it was necessary to save her life, to preserve her physical health, or to preserve her mental health. Western NGOs and development workers have urged abortion be legalized to terminate unwanted pregnancies as well as lower Uganda’s rate of population growth. Abortions can be readily procured, however, from traditional healers — however, the 2011 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey reported that 1500 women died the previous year from these procedures. Demands for abortion for convenience were symptomatic of the moral degeneracy threatening the country, Archbishop Ntagali said. “People are becoming too greedy, desiring to have more than you can work for. This has bred corruption and misuse of public resources. Roads are becoming impassable, women dying in hospital during delivery because they are no drugs, schools are dilapidated but some people are building mansions,” he said.