Crusading for Life

Sir F. Y. Imhagwe

The Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM), Lagos Metropolitan Council, recently took the campaign against abortion to secondary schools
By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
For the about 320 students drawn from various secondary schools in and around Apapa area of the Lagos metropolis, May 1, 2010 is a day like no other. On that day, they listened with rapt attention as one speaker after another lectured them on a topic they ordinarily would not have gotten in their routine classroom activities: The evils of abortion.
Tagged “Right to Life –Divine Human Law,” the seminar organised by the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Nigeria, Lagos Metropolitan Council, saw the various speakers mince no words in reiterating the position of the Catholic Church on the issue of abortion.
For example, in his lecture, Sir F. Y. Imhagwe, a Grand Knight, told the teenagers that the purpose of the lecture was to create awareness on the Catholic Church’s position concerning abortion. He stressed that the church regards abortion – by whatever means – as violence against the unborn child, who having been conceived, has the right to be born.
Imhagwe stated that apart from its spiritual and moral implications, abortion remains an illegal and criminal act. And to those in the medical profession who still indulge in procurement of abortion, he reminded them that the act is against the Hyppocratic oath which medical doctors swear to before being licensed to practice.
Cosmas Emeka Okeke’s lecture, apart from centering on the spiritual and moral implications of abortion, also gave insights into what constitutes an abortion in different countries of the world. For example, he said, in Australia and several states in the United States of America (USA), a foetus is considered viable when the gestational age is more than 22 weeks, or if the foetus weighs 500 grammes or more; hence if the expelled foetus weighs less than 400 grams, it is an abortion. According to him, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has also adopted this criterion. Britain, Okeke, also a knight of St. Mulumba, informed his audience, has continued to contend that viability occurs at 28 weeks of pregnancy, or if the foetus weighs 100 grams (Ikg) or more.
The lecturer explained that quite often, the euphemism, miscarriage is used by non-medical persons to describe abortion because of the criminality of the act. He identified two types of abortion: spontaneous and induced.
While insisting that life starts at conception and that both unborn and born persons are entitled to their existence until natural death, Okeke said that only God creates and owns life and so Him alone should take it whenever he desires.
Reverend Sister Anthonia Onovo, a Carmelite missionary sister, dwelt on the Catholic Church’s position on abortion as contained in the Concilliar documents on Declaration of Procured abortion. Quoting extracts from the document, Onovo, revealed that the church regards human life as a primordial value which must be protected and promoted.
The church, she further stated, is conscious to exercise her vocation of defending human beings against everything that could destroy or diminish dignity such as abortion. This, she said is because the son of God became man and thus made everyone his brother and sister. By committing abortion, therefore, those who engage in it, Onovo said, make Jesus bereaved. She said that the church advocates attitude of respect to life, stressing that the tradition of the church as conveyed by the Second Vatican Council is that human life must be protected and cherished at the various stages of its development.
While Rev. Sister Onovo identified causes of abortion in the society to include poverty, peer pressure, lack of readiness to become early parents, incest and rape among others, Imhagwe averred that establishment of crisis pregnancy centres, teaching young couples natural family planning, informing parents about the dangers of secular sex education, among others, would go a long way in tacking the hydra-headed monster called abortion.
The schools that participated in the pro-life lecture included ABC Royal College, Maza-Maza, Delight International Secondary School, Kalac Loyola College, Prince Charles International Secondary and Sacred Heart College.