Years after it happened, Tosin Falana still vividly remembers her friend Amara’s* traumatic abortion. They were in university. “She called me and said she was pregnant. She was so ashamed because we were still in school,” Falana says.
Ultimately, Amara decided to terminate her pregnancy. But abortions are illegal in Nigeria and can attract prison sentences of up to 14 years unless they are done to save a pregnant person’s life.
“In my view, those who mostly seek abortion are young girls and poor women,” says Falana, now a 38-year-old teacher in Ogun state, in the country’s southwest.
