In a country where thousands die every year from unsafe procedures, and rape is shockingly high, campaigners must overcome strict laws and religious beliefs, as well as misinformation and stigma
In a modest house on a red dirt road in Ota in Ogun state, Adijat Adejumo, a 39-year-old auxiliary nurse, runs a small chemist shop. She treats common illnesses such as malaria and colds and sells painkillers, anti-diarrhoeal medications and vitamins. For the past few years, she has also been selling packs of mifepristone and misoprostol, medicines included in the WHO essential medicines list to induce abortion safely.
Both medicines are legal in Nigeria, a country with one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, but only if used to save women’s lives during obstetric complications. Adejumo does not stock them in her shop; instead when a woman comes asking for help to end an unwanted pregnancy, she has them delivered. On average, she gets three such requests a month.
SOURCE: The Guardian, by Kasia Strek in Ota and Lagos, 13 January 2025.