I was at an event somewhere and heard someone say it is ethical to terminate the pregnancy of a minor (10 years old) so she could continue with her education and childhood. What does the law say on this matter?
Terminating pregnancy should essentially be a health and medical care conversation, with the law helping create order to reduce instances of injustice. Such conversations, however, are easier and likely objective if the person involved is an adult female. In this context, legal separation must be made to demonstrate and justify that children’s vulnerability obligates the state and society to protect them from any form of abuse, violence, neglect, harmful cultural practices, inhuman treatment, and punishment.
While pregnancy termination through abortion has been provided for in the Constitution, in Article 26 Clause 4, it is cautious-ridden. It is only allowed when a trained health professional recommends it as an emergency treatment or deems it as a better response to saving the life of the mother.
Further to this, is when any other written law commissions it. It does not matter that the mother is a minor, and more so when the relevant biological features required to support an infant are grossly underdeveloped, as it would be in a child.
Whether commissioning abortion of a minor’s pregnancy is lawful is interpretive based on several parts of the legal and policy framework, notwithstanding the religious and cultural underpinnings. Foremost, it must remain in the society and state’s purview that minors must never be in such a scenario. It is indicative of an adult having defiled the child, or two minors abusing each other to cause the pregnancy. Section 6 (1) of the Children’s Act (2022) enables part of the Constitution’s Article 53 by commanding the state, amongst other parenting institutions, to guarantee a child’s right to survival, well-being, protection, and development. At this point, it is scaringly immoral to imagine that an adult did find a minor to be fit for sex.
The decision to terminate a minor’s pregnancy must be founded on the tenets that ascribe to the fundamental principle that prioritises that child’s best interest, as stated and described in Section 8 of the Children’s Act within the breadth of Article 53 Clause 2, alongside 43 Clause 1 and 27 Clause 4 and 5, which specifically speaks to the right on attaining highest standards of health including reproductive healthcare, and non-discrimination.
In following through Section 6 (1) of the Children’s Act and in promoting the legitimate expectation drawn from Clause 1 (e) of the Constitution’s Article 53, termination of such pregnancy can be justified. Parents with the responsibility of giving care and protection supposedly of equal standing may, in consultation with a medical expert, agree to terminate such pregnancy, with a view of preserving the child’s right to survive, grow, and develop.
Other grounds that may necessitate a course of abortion are as follows: first is when considering a child’s growth and development, thereby asserting the immaturity and unpreparedness of the biological capacity to carry a pregnancy to term, citing Section 6 (1) of the Children’s Act on its development and survival: secondly, is when Article 27 Clauses 4 and 5 are invoked to promote and ring-fence the child’s right to education, making claim of discrimination and stigma based on pregnancy; thirdly is to summon the principles that constitute inherent human dignity as espoused in Article 28, in contextualizing the leave-no-one-behind policy of the Sustainable Development Goals, and demand abortion to free the minor in pursuance of its natural path of development: fourthly, it is legally ambitious and probable if Article 24 is invoked to reduce the ability of medical practitioners and other agencies not recommending abortion for the situation herein described. Such limitation shall be within the reasonable and justifiable based on human dignity, particularly on the account of the relation between the limitation and its purpose and whether there are less restrictive means to achieve the purpose.
However, the process of terminating must consider several procedural factors. Going by the spirit in Section 14 of the Prevention and Control, it is crucial to make the minor aware of the issue and seek consent, or at least an opinion. There are times when the pregnancy is terminated before full term, especially at week 28, allowing the unborn to survive through incubation but saving the minor mother from the burden of weakened muscles during actual labour and childbirth. Even when such processes are recommended and acted upon, such minors require full psychosocial support comprising counselling to reduce the opportunities for depression, stress disorders, and self-discrimination.
