Unraveling Marie Stopes, UK Abortion Clinic in Nigeria

For three months, Sun­day Ehi­gia­tor, who went un­der­cover to un­ravel the al­le­ga­tion of mul­ti­ple and un­der­age abor­tions lev­elled against Marie Stopes Clinic, a United King­dom NGO based in La­gos, by Pro­ject for Hu­man Devel­op­ment, a pro-life NGO also in La­gos,

Marie Stopes clinicThe slip in­di­cat­ing pay­ment for new card at Maria Stopes

It started with a scoop in the early hours of May 21, 2019. THISDAY was tipped off that there was a con­cluded in­ves­ti­ga­tion on the Marie Stopes Clinic, a United King­dom NGO based in La­gos by Pro­ject for Hu­man Devel­op­ment (PHD), a pro-life NGO, also based in La­gos, and sub­sidiary of the Foun­da­tion for African Cul­tural Her­itage (FACH). The tip off was that po­lice de­tec­tives at­tached to Zone 2, Onikan, La­gos, would in­vade the clinic by mid-day. The raid was suc­cess­ful. Armed with that in­for­ma­tion, THISDAY swung into ac­tion with series of in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

It started with a scoop in the early hours of May 21, 2019. THISDAY was tipped off that there was a con­cluded in­ves­ti­ga­tion on the Marie Stopes Clinic, a United King­dom NGO based in La­gos by Pro­ject for Hu­man Devel­op­ment (PHD), a pro-life NGO, also based in La­gos, and sub­sidiary of the Foun­da­tion for African Cul­tural Her­itage (FACH). The tip off was that po­lice de­tec­tives at­tached to Zone 2, Onikan, La­gos, would in­vade the clinic by mid-day. The raid was suc­cess­ful. Armed with that in­for­ma­tion, THISDAY swung into ac­tion with series of in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

The Raid

Speak­ing with THISDAY on con­di­tion of anonymity, a staff of the NGO said, “The Marie Stopes abortion Clinic, strate­gi­cally lo­cated at No 105, Itire Road, off Lawan­son, a very densely pop­u­lated area of La­gos was abruptly shut down yes­ter­day May 21, 2019.

“Act­ing on a pe­ti­tion lodged with them by our NGO based in La­gos, a com­bined team of po­lice de­tec­tives from the Nige­ria po­lice, Zone 2, Onikan swooped on the clinic. In or­der to pro­vide ev­i­dence to the po­lice that abortion is being car­ried out at the Marie Stopes Clinic, the pro-life NGO had pre­vi­ously sent its staff that pre­tended that she was preg­nant to the Clinic. On get­ting there, she met Dr. Bernard and Miss Jades­ola.

“Act­ing on a pe­ti­tion lodged with them by our NGO based in La­gos, a com­bined team of po­lice de­tec­tives from the Nige­ria po­lice, Zone 2, Onikan swooped on the clinic. In or­der to pro­vide ev­i­dence to the po­lice that abortion is being car­ried out at the Marie Stopes Clinic, the pro-life NGO had pre­vi­ously sent its staff that pre­tended that she was preg­nant to the Clinic. On get­ting there, she met Dr. Bernard and Miss Jades­ola.

“She in­quired from them whether they per­form abortion be­cause she was preg­nant and needed abortion. They told her that they do abortion for N30,000. On re­turn­ing to our of­fice, we in­structed her to en­ter into What­sApp con­ver­sa­tion with Marie Stopes through their What­sapp num­ber.

“In the con­ver­sa­tion be­tween her and Marie Stopes the lat­ter clearly ad­mit­ted that it per­forms abortion at the clinic. Armed with this ev­i­dence, we pe­ti­tioned the po­lice head­quar­ters. Our pe­ti­tion was ap­proved. Con­se­quently, on May 21, 2019 we ac­com­pa­nied the po­lice to the clinic to­gether with our staff that pre­tended she was preg­nant.

“In the con­ver­sa­tion be­tween her and Marie Stopes the lat­ter clearly ad­mit­ted that it per­forms abortion at the clinic. Armed with this ev­i­dence, we pe­ti­tioned the po­lice head­quar­ters. Our pe­ti­tion was ap­proved. Con­se­quently, on May 21, 2019 we ac­com­pa­nied the po­lice to the clinic to­gether with our staff that pre­tended she was preg­nant.

“When we got close to the clinic, the po­lice woman in plain clothes, pre­tended as if she was the mother of our ‘preg­nant’ staff. She took our staff by the hand and en­tered the abortion clinic while we all hid in­side the two cars we came with. On en­ter­ing the abortion clinic, she told Dr. Bernard that the girl was her preg­nant daugh­ter and that she wanted the clinic to abort the baby. Dr. Bernard agreed and de­manded for the N30,000.

“When we got close to the clinic, the po­lice woman in plain clothes, pre­tended as if she was the mother of our ‘preg­nant’ staff. She took our staff by the hand and en­tered the abortion clinic while we all hid in­side the two cars we came with. On en­ter­ing the abortion clinic, she told Dr. Bernard that the girl was her preg­nant daugh­ter and that she wanted the clinic to abort the baby. Dr. Bernard agreed and de­manded for the N30,000.

“At this junc­ture, the po­lice woman blew the whis­tle and we all jumped out of the cars and en­tered the clinic. As soon we en­tered the clinic, the po­lice im­me­di­ately hand­cuffed Dr Bernard. All the nurses were in panic. The po­lice spent two hours in the clinic open­ing all lock­ers and draw­ers. We en­tered a room called ‘Pro­ce­dure Room’, where abor­tions are done.

“We met a girl of about 15 years old there. When the po­lice asked her what she had come to do, she said she came to re­ceive her in­jec­tion, mean­ing abor­ti­fa­cient in­jec­tion. The po­lice ar­rested her as she wept. Later the po­lice re­leased her. The po­lice saw many abortion files, man­ual as­pi­ra­tors, car­tons of abortion pills do­nated to Marie Stopes by UNFPA, abortion in­jec­tions and abortion bills.

“We met a girl of about 15 years old there. When the po­lice asked her what she had come to do, she said she came to re­ceive her in­jec­tion, mean­ing abor­ti­fa­cient in­jec­tion. The po­lice ar­rested her as she wept. Later the po­lice re­leased her. The po­lice saw many abortion files, man­ual as­pi­ra­tors, car­tons of abortion pills do­nated to Marie Stopes by UNFPA, abortion in­jec­tions and abortion bills.

“While the search was go­ing on, Dr Bernard in po­lice hand­cuff kept say­ing that Marie Stopes does fam­ily plan­ning not abortion. The nurses also said that what they do is fam­ily plan­ning. But the abortion files showed the names of girls in­clud­ing mi­nors who had come to do abortion at the clinic. At the end of the search, the po­lice took all the ev­i­dence to their sta­tion and granted Dr. Bernard bail.”

“While the search was go­ing on, Dr Bernard in po­lice hand­cuff kept say­ing that Marie Stopes does fam­ily plan­ning not abortion. The nurses also said that what they do is fam­ily plan­ning. But the abortion files showed the names of girls in­clud­ing mi­nors who had come to do abortion at the clinic. At the end of the search, the po­lice took all the ev­i­dence to their sta­tion and granted Dr. Bernard bail.”

In­ter­ro­ga­tion

Af­ter the ar­rest came in­ter­ro­ga­tion. On this the source said, “The next day, we were in­vited to the po­lice sta­tion. When we got there we met three coun­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Marie Stopes in Nige­ria. We all ap­peared be­fore the po­lice boss. We pre­sented the case of our NGO against Marie Stopes. When we fin­ished, Marie Stopes spoke up. They said that what they do in Nige­ria is fam­ily plan­ning and post-abortion care not abortion, that they are pro-lif­ers as well be­cause they are sav­ing women from dy­ing, that many women die be­cause they re­ceive abortion from quacks.

Af­ter the ar­rest came in­ter­ro­ga­tion. On this the source said, “The next day, we were in­vited to the po­lice sta­tion. When we got there we met three coun­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Marie Stopes in Nige­ria. We all ap­peared be­fore the po­lice boss. We pre­sented the case of our NGO against Marie Stopes. When we fin­ished, Marie Stopes spoke up. They said that what they do in Nige­ria is fam­ily plan­ning and post-abortion care not abortion, that they are pro-lif­ers as well be­cause they are sav­ing women from dy­ing, that many women die be­cause they re­ceive abortion from quacks.

“The po­lice boss caught in and said to them, ‘So you do abortion then’. In re­sponse, they said, ‘no, we do fam­ily plan­ning’. Then the po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tor queried, ‘How can mi­nors be do­ing fam­ily plan­ning’. Then he showed the po­lice boss the abortion files con­tain­ing names of mi­nors who had done abortion by Marie Stopes. He told his boss that the pain­ful as­pect is that the con­sent forms in­side the files were never filled, mean­ing that the abor­tions were done on the mi­nors with­out parental con­sent.

“At the end of the hear­ing, the po­lice boss an­nounced that the po­lice should be given time to con­clude in­ves­ti­ga­tion against Marie Stopes in Nige­ria. When Marie Stopes de­manded for the abortion files, the po­lice re­fused to hand over the files to them. The po­lice told them that they were ev­i­dence against them.”

Prompted by this, THISDAY put a call through to the La­gos state po­lice Public Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer, Bala Elkana, a Deputy Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice, to con­firm the story. How­ever, DSP Elkana said he wasn’t aware of the op­er­a­tion as at when we men­tioned it to him, but promised to get back af­ter he might have con­tacted the sta­tion in charge (Nige­ria po­lice, Zone 2, Onikan-La­gos).

Prompted by this, THISDAY put a call through to the La­gos state po­lice Public Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer, Bala Elkana, a Deputy Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice, to con­firm the story. How­ever, DSP Elkana said he wasn’t aware of the op­er­a­tion as at when we men­tioned it to him, but promised to get back af­ter he might have con­tacted the sta­tion in charge (Nige­ria po­lice, Zone 2, Onikan-La­gos).

He did called back af­ter­wards to say the po­lice sta­tion claimed not to be aware of such op­er­a­tion. This aroused this re­porter’s sus­pi­cions to con­tinue to dig fur­ther.

We were able to ob­tain con­tact of one of the of­fi­cers that joined in the raid­ing of the hospi­tal (name undis­closed). He dis­closed to us that po­lice ac­tu­ally raided the clinic; hav­ing re­ceived a pe­ti­tion from an NGO.

Ac­cord­ing to him, “on our ar­rival, we took pos­ses­sion of doc­u­mented ev­i­dences of abortion being car­ried out on mi­nors in the clinic, and some other in­stru­ments and in­jecta­bles be­lieved to be used in car­ry­ing out the act.

Ac­cord­ing to him, “on our ar­rival, we took pos­ses­sion of doc­u­mented ev­i­dences of abortion being car­ried out on mi­nors in the clinic, and some other in­stru­ments and in­jecta­bles be­lieved to be used in car­ry­ing out the act.

“It is a long list of de­tails of all the girls they have had course to evac­u­ate or per­form abortion for. It has all their in­for­ma­tion.

“But we need more than that to be able to win the case in court. We need tes­ti­monies from vic­tims; at least two or one of the un­der­age girls. We have started reach­ing out to few of them we be­lieve stays closer but they are all scared as it is ob­vi­ous that most of them did it with­out the con­sent of their par­ents of guardian.”

“But we need more than that to be able to win the case in court. We need tes­ti­monies from vic­tims; at least two or one of the un­der­age girls. We have started reach­ing out to few of them we be­lieve stays closer but they are all scared as it is ob­vi­ous that most of them did it with­out the con­sent of their par­ents of guardian.”

“The clinic is claim­ing that they don’t per­form abortion in Nige­ria that they only give con­tra­cep­tives and per­form post abortion ser­vices. It is just an am­bi­gu­ity to cover up their tracks.

“We all know that, there is no clear dif­fer­ence be­tween abortion and post abortion treat­ment. But only a med­i­cal ex­pert can re­ally speak on that. But from the record we have of the pur­pose some of the vic­tims vis­ited, they clearly stated that they were there for abortion.”

Mirabel Cen­tre’s Stance

More­over, on May 22, 2019, THISDAY ob­tained a state­ment from Mirabel cen­tre’s In­sta­gram page (@mirabel­cen­treng), which con­demned the ac­tion of the po­lice on the clinic, con­firm­ing the raid by the po­lice to be true.

Ac­cord­ing to the post, “On Tues­day, May 21, 2019, po­lice of­fi­cers raided a Marie Stopes Clinic in La­gos. Ha­rassed the health work­ers and pa­tients and took away con­fi­den­tial client in­for­ma­tion.

“Marie Stopes of­fers free and af­ford­able fam­ily plan­ning ser­vices to women and men, preg­nancy tests, pre and post-na­tal care, treat­ment and ser­vices for sex­u­ally trans­mit­ted in­fec­tions (STI), HIV test­ing and ul­tra­sound and lab­o­ra­tory ser­vices. They have trained staff who of­fers coun­sel­ing and treat­ment es­pe­cially to those who can­not af­ford the costs at pri­vate hos­pi­tals.

“Marie Stopes of­fers free and af­ford­able fam­ily plan­ning ser­vices to women and men, preg­nancy tests, pre and post-na­tal care, treat­ment and ser­vices for sex­u­ally trans­mit­ted in­fec­tions (STI), HIV test­ing and ul­tra­sound and lab­o­ra­tory ser­vices. They have trained staff who of­fers coun­sel­ing and treat­ment es­pe­cially to those who can­not af­ford the costs at pri­vate hos­pi­tals.

“To raid a cen­tre that pro­vides such ser­vices is send­ing a mes­sage to women and girls as well as men and boys that they are not safe in health cen­ters and that they don’t de­serve ac­cess to qual­ity health ser­vices with­out fear or judg­ment, why the at­tack?”

Ef­forts to Reach the Clinic

We like­wise con­tacted Dr. Bernard a day af­ter the raid to hear the hospi­tal’s side of the story, but he never picked his calls nor re­turned the call af­ter­wards, hence we de­cided to go un­der­cover to un­ravel facts about the case.

Un­der­cover In­ves­ti­ga­tion

Af­ter the ini­tial un­der­cover at­tempt to in­fil­trate the clinic a week af­ter the in­ci­dent proved abortive, as staff weren’t will­ing to give out any in­for­ma­tion on the abortion pro­cesses, and the clinic se­cu­rity mon­i­tor­ing ev­ery moves, we de­cided to give it a space of time; in this case three months, be­fore re­turn­ing.

Af­ter the ini­tial un­der­cover at­tempt to in­fil­trate the clinic a week af­ter the in­ci­dent proved abortive, as staff weren’t will­ing to give out any in­for­ma­tion on the abortion pro­cesses, and the clinic se­cu­rity mon­i­tor­ing ev­ery moves, we de­cided to give it a space of time; in this case three months, be­fore re­turn­ing.

This was done to en­able them lower their guards in time, and re­duce any sus­pi­cion. Months went by, and we re­turned. This time, their guards were in­deed low­ered. Un­like our ini­tial visit, the se­cu­rity guards re­mained in their se­cu­rity house by the out­side gate, with­out both­er­ing to es­cort us in.

This re­porter, in the com­pany of a fe­male col­league, Chia­maka Ozu­lumba, dis­guised as lovers, with a false in­ten­tion to get rid of a two- months-old preg­nancy vis­ited the clinic on Au­gust 26, 2019 at about 3pm. They like­wise changed their names to Raphael Mathias and Lil­ian Ezeobi re­spec­tively.

This re­porter, in the com­pany of a fe­male col­league, Chia­maka Ozu­lumba, dis­guised as lovers, with a false in­ten­tion to get rid of a two- months-old preg­nancy vis­ited the clinic on Au­gust 26, 2019 at about 3pm. They like­wise changed their names to Raphael Mathias and Lil­ian Ezeobi re­spec­tively.

With our recorders dis­cretely ac­tive, we went into the build­ing. Upon en­ter­ing, to the wall at our right, was a fee for all of the ser­vices they ren­der from which the num­ber nine tagged, “Abortion Ad­vance Care”, was pegged at N30,000.

Other items on the list in­cludes, Long Ac­tive Re­versible Con­tra­cep­tives (LARC)-IUCD and Im­plants, Levonorgestrel (ESG-IUS), IUD Re­moval, Im­plant Re­moval, In­jecta­bles, Oral Pills, Male and Fe­male Con­dom, Per­ma­nent Method, Vis­ual In­spec­tion With Acetic Acid (VIA), Cryother­apy, at N3,600, N7,200, N2,400, N2,400, N360, N250, N120, N3,600 and N14,000 re­spec­tively.

Other items on the list in­cludes, Long Ac­tive Re­versible Con­tra­cep­tives (LARC)-IUCD and Im­plants, Levonorgestrel (ESG-IUS), IUD Re­moval, Im­plant Re­moval, In­jecta­bles, Oral Pills, Male and Fe­male Con­dom, Per­ma­nent Method, Vis­ual In­spec­tion With Acetic Acid (VIA), Cryother­apy, at N3,600, N7,200, N2,400, N2,400, N360, N250, N120, N3,600 and N14,000 re­spec­tively.

We were at­tended to by Miss. Jades­ola at the re­cep­tion. We re­quested to see the doctor. She in­formed us that con­sul­ta­tion fee was N2,400 and we must reg­is­ter at N1,200 be­fore we can see the doctor. In to­tal, we paid N3,600 to the clinic’s FCMB ac­count via POS, for con­sul­ta­tion and gen­eral reg­is­tra­tion be­fore we were al­lowed ac­cess to the doctor l.

Be­fore mak­ing pay­ment, we took turns to ques­tion Miss. Jades­ola on the safety of the abortion pro­ce­dures, un­der the guise of being ner­vous about the process, and she took her time to make us be­lieve we were in safe hands.

Be­fore mak­ing pay­ment, we took turns to ques­tion Miss. Jades­ola on the safety of the abortion pro­ce­dures, un­der the guise of being ner­vous about the process, and she took her time to make us be­lieve we were in safe hands.

Ac­cord­ing to her, “She is in safe and in per­fect hands. This is an NGO, it is in­ter­na­tional. We have not had any com­pli­ca­tions be­fore. Since it is still within two months it is very safe. Be­cause once it is 13 weeks, we won’t do it. That is when it is no longer safe. As long is it is below 13 weeks, it is very safe. The pro­ce­dure is N30,000. It won’t take time. Once you pay the money, in less than five min­utes, she is through. We would even have to place her on con­tra­cep­tives af­ter the process. It is

Ac­cord­ing to her, “She is in safe and in per­fect hands. This is an NGO, it is in­ter­na­tional. We have not had any com­pli­ca­tions be­fore. Since it is still within two months it is very safe. Be­cause once it is 13 weeks, we won’t do it. That is when it is no longer safe. As long is it is below 13 weeks, it is very safe. The pro­ce­dure is N30,000. It won’t take time. Once you pay the money, in less than five min­utes, she is through. We would even have to place her on con­tra­cep­tives af­ter the process. It is

one of our con­di­tions.

“We have dif­fer­ent types. The one we would place un­der your skin. And we do long term con­tra­cep­tive-five years and above. The only side ef­fect is that, it could al­ter­ate your men­strual cir­cle. We also have IUD, that one is for 10 years. But any­time, you take any of those out, you can get preg­nant at any point in time.”

On the pro­ce­dures the clinic uses in abort­ing un­wanted preg­nan­cies, she said, “She needs to con­di­tion her mind that noth­ing would hap­pen to her. We use two meth­ods-the sur­gi­cal and in­jecta­bles. If it is the sur­gi­cal, we just evac­u­ate the fe­tus from her womb. She won’t feel any pain. We would take it out from her uterus. Of course, we would in­ject her so she doesn’t feel pain. And she would come out like noth­ing hap­pened af­ter­wards.

On the pro­ce­dures the clinic uses in abort­ing un­wanted preg­nan­cies, she said, “She needs to con­di­tion her mind that noth­ing would hap­pen to her. We use two meth­ods-the sur­gi­cal and in­jecta­bles. If it is the sur­gi­cal, we just evac­u­ate the fe­tus from her womb. She won’t feel any pain. We would take it out from her uterus. Of course, we would in­ject her so she doesn’t feel pain. And she would come out like noth­ing hap­pened af­ter­wards.

“If she is us­ing drugs, she would ex­pe­ri­ence some­thing sim­i­lar to a se­ri­ous men­strual pain for at most seven days. It is 98 per cent suc­cess. There is no side ef­fect what­so­ever for ei­ther of the pro­cesses. The peo­ple that came here for this process last two months for in­stance, they have come again for an­other abortion this month. They would do so again, the next month they are here again. That is why we in­sisted that they must do fam­ily plan­ning, be­cause we saw that they are now turn­ing it to pure wa­ter. So we now say okay, if you must do it, we must place you on con­tra­cep­tives.

“If she is us­ing drugs, she would ex­pe­ri­ence some­thing sim­i­lar to a se­ri­ous men­strual pain for at most seven days. It is 98 per cent suc­cess. There is no side ef­fect what­so­ever for ei­ther of the pro­cesses. The peo­ple that came here for this process last two months for in­stance, they have come again for an­other abortion this month. They would do so again, the next month they are here again. That is why we in­sisted that they must do fam­ily plan­ning, be­cause we saw that they are now turn­ing it to pure wa­ter. So we now say okay, if you must do it, we must place you on con­tra­cep­tives.

Asked how long she has been with the clinic to know that the pro­cesses were safe, she said, “This is an NGO, it is In­ter­na­tional. The process is safe. If it weren’t peo­ple, would have raised alarm. They are no quacks here. This place is In­ter­na­tional and it is reg­is­tered. First and fore­most, no­body has ever died here. This place isn’t a quack cen­tre, you can look it up. Our head of­fice is in Lon­don.

Asked how long she has been with the clinic to know that the pro­cesses were safe, she said, “This is an NGO, it is In­ter­na­tional. The process is safe. If it weren’t peo­ple, would have raised alarm. They are no quacks here. This place is In­ter­na­tional and it is reg­is­tered. First and fore­most, no­body has ever died here. This place isn’t a quack cen­tre, you can look it up. Our head of­fice is in Lon­don.

“Again, once it’s more than 13 weeks, that is the when there is dan­ger. And the peo­ple that are go­ing to do it for you are trained. So you need to first of all con­di­tion your mind that you will not die. No­body has ever died here, and you will not die here please. Please I am beg­ging you. So it is not an is­sue at all. And you are not go­ing to have is­sues with child bear­ing in fu­ture. There are some peo­ple that would come here now for it, in the next two months they are here again. When we saw that this one would turn to some­thing else, that was why we im­posed them on con­tra­cep­tives.

“Again, once it’s more than 13 weeks, that is the when there is dan­ger. And the peo­ple that are go­ing to do it for you are trained. So you need to first of all con­di­tion your mind that you will not die. No­body has ever died here, and you will not die here please. Please I am beg­ging you. So it is not an is­sue at all. And you are not go­ing to have is­sues with child bear­ing in fu­ture. There are some peo­ple that would come here now for it, in the next two months they are here again. When we saw that this one would turn to some­thing else, that was why we im­posed them on con­tra­cep­tives.

“So you must take a form of con­tra­cep­tive so that you wouldn’t come back here again. It was be­cause of the in­stances I gave, be­cause peo­ple have now turned it to nor­mal thing. See, there are two more things. You can de­cide to take drugs. If you take drugs, that one is a nor­mal process. But if you do the sur­gi­cal, we would give you an in­jec­tion that would kill the pain, then af­ter that, you would come out like noth­ing ever hap­pened.

“No­body that sees you go­ing will ever know that any­thing hap­pened to you. I am as­sur­ing you, and you have my words. But I need you to first and fore­most take out the fact that you will die. You will not die, you can­not die, me I don’t want some­body to die on my neck o. So you will not die.

“No­body that sees you go­ing will ever know that any­thing hap­pened to you. I am as­sur­ing you, and you have my words. But I need you to first and fore­most take out the fact that you will die. You will not die, you can­not die, me I don’t want some­body to die on my neck o. So you will not die.

“I have been here since Marie Stopes moved here last year. I used to work with an­other hospi­tal be­fore I moved here. Once you are done, please you should be com­ing for checkup. You are not pay­ing for it. If you come back for checkup, they would scan you to as­cer­tain that you are okay, so your checkup is very im­por­tant. A quack can­not own this place. We are not run­ning this place based on what we get from it, we are run­ning it with dona­tions. So it is an NGO.”

“I have been here since Marie Stopes moved here last year. I used to work with an­other hospi­tal be­fore I moved here. Once you are done, please you should be com­ing for checkup. You are not pay­ing for it. If you come back for checkup, they would scan you to as­cer­tain that you are okay, so your checkup is very im­por­tant. A quack can­not own this place. We are not run­ning this place based on what we get from it, we are run­ning it with dona­tions. So it is an NGO.”

Con­sul­ta­tion with Dr. Fa­toye

We fi­nally got to meet the doctor on duty, Dr. Fa­toye and the first ques­tion posed to­wards us was if this was our first time of vis­ing the clinic. We an­swered in the af­fir­ma­tive. There­after, we no­ticed a change in his coun­te­nance. His con­ver­sa­tion with us be­came more abrupt as he was prob­a­bly con­scious of the fact that we might be an un­wanted guest. He be­gan to code the word ‘abortion’ with ‘pro­ce­dure’ (an am­bigu­ous med­i­cal ter­mi­nol­ogy).

We fi­nally got to meet the doctor on duty, Dr. Fa­toye and the first ques­tion posed to­wards us was if this was our first time of vis­ing the clinic. We an­swered in the af­fir­ma­tive. There­after, we no­ticed a change in his coun­te­nance. His con­ver­sa­tion with us be­came more abrupt as he was prob­a­bly con­scious of the fact that we might be an un­wanted guest. He be­gan to code the word ‘abortion’ with ‘pro­ce­dure’ (an am­bigu­ous med­i­cal ter­mi­nol­ogy).

We man­aged to con­vince him that we were re­ferred by a friend who had per­formed abortion in the clinic be­fore, be­fore we be­gan to talk. “Let me face her she is the client,” the doctor said af­ter we ex­changed pleas­antries.

He con­tin­ued, “you look tensed, you are wor­ried. I don’t want you to jump into con­clu­sions, let us talk. What ex­actly is the is­sue? When was the last time you saw your pe­riod? I need the par­tic­u­lar date of your last men­strual cy­cle. Be­cause if it’s be­yond the two months time­line, the pro­ce­dure gets very risky and we de­cline car­ry­ing out the pro­ce­dure.”

He con­tin­ued, “you look tensed, you are wor­ried. I don’t want you to jump into con­clu­sions, let us talk. What ex­actly is the is­sue? When was the last time you saw your pe­riod? I need the par­tic­u­lar date of your last men­strual cy­cle. Be­cause if it’s be­yond the two months time­line, the pro­ce­dure gets very risky and we de­cline car­ry­ing out the pro­ce­dure.”

In re­sponse, we ex­plained to that its less than two months, and she was sup­posed to see her pe­riod first week of ev­ery month, which she didn’t see the first month, prompt­ing us to do a urine test.

He con­tin­ued, “So, at what point did you do a test and found out you were preg­nant? Have you done a scan? Have you been preg­nant be­fore, do have you kids? We re­sponded that we did the self urine test few days prior to com­ing to the clinic, and the re­sult was pos­i­tive. And re­sponded ‘no’ to the ques­tions on if she has been preg­nant be­fore or done any scan.

He con­tin­ued, “So, at what point did you do a test and found out you were preg­nant? Have you done a scan? Have you been preg­nant be­fore, do have you kids? We re­sponded that we did the self urine test few days prior to com­ing to the clinic, and the re­sult was pos­i­tive. And re­sponded ‘no’ to the ques­tions on if she has been preg­nant be­fore or done any scan.

He con­tin­ued, “You have never been preg­nant, it’s all right. For us in Maria Stopes, what we don’t want or what we are work­ing against is this kind of sit­u­a­tion. Our mis­sion is that, we want it to be that any time a woman is preg­nant in this world, let it be that the con­cep­tion was planned and the only way that is pos­si­ble is through the pro­mo­tion on the use of con­tra­cep­tion.

“Like I usu­ally tell peo­ple if for in­stance, I met Lil­ian or some­one from Maria Stopes met Lil­ian a cou­ple of months be­fore or a year ago, they would prob­a­bly have talked to her, like ‘madam why don’t you come and try this con­tra­cep­tive’ or try this one, and this child wouldn’t have hap­pened’.

“Like I usu­ally tell peo­ple if for in­stance, I met Lil­ian or some­one from Maria Stopes met Lil­ian a cou­ple of months be­fore or a year ago, they would prob­a­bly have talked to her, like ‘madam why don’t you come and try this con­tra­cep­tive’ or try this one, and this child wouldn’t have hap­pened’.

“So of course this hap­pens and we might have to help some­times but what we are con­cerned about when this hap­pens, is how it hap­pens. So we use this as an op­por­tu­nity to in­tro­duce con­tra­cep­tives and coun­sel her. But first things first, we need to do a scan, we need to do an ex­am­i­na­tion to de­cide on ex­actly the sta­tus and how we go ahead. But on get­ting to that point the cost is N30,000.”

“So of course this hap­pens and we might have to help some­times but what we are con­cerned about when this hap­pens, is how it hap­pens. So we use this as an op­por­tu­nity to in­tro­duce con­tra­cep­tives and coun­sel her. But first things first, we need to do a scan, we need to do an ex­am­i­na­tion to de­cide on ex­actly the sta­tus and how we go ahead. But on get­ting to that point the cost is N30,000.”

We asked what he meant by ‘get­ting to that point’, and he said, “Get to that point ac­tu­ally (like we should al­ready un­der­stand in code) and you de­cide that okay, if we are go­ing ahead, the cost is N30,000.”

At this point we de­cided to call it a day, hav­ing re­alised he was being very care­ful of his lan­guage, hence we replied that we won’t be able to go on with it right now, as she was too tensed at the mo­ment, hence we would re­turn the next day.

As we were leav­ing the clinic premises, we couldn’t help but no­tice the dis­gust­ing looks on the faces of neigh­bors trad­ing or liv­ing around the neigh­bour­hood where the clinic was lo­cated, af­ter see­ing us com­ing out of the premises.

As we were leav­ing the clinic premises, we couldn’t help but no­tice the dis­gust­ing looks on the faces of neigh­bors trad­ing or liv­ing around the neigh­bour­hood where the clinic was lo­cated, af­ter see­ing us com­ing out of the premises.

It was such look of con­dem­na­tion, as though we had just killed a life. We were prompted to ask the mo­tor­cy­clist that picked us from the frontage of the hospi­tal why they were look­ing at us with such dis­gust? He replied that the look was be­cause they thought we had truly gone in to abort our sup­posed preg­nancy.

Po­si­tion of the Law

In Nige­ria, abortion is il­le­gal and car­ries a stiff jail sen­tence, up to 14 years, un­less done to save the life of the preg­nant woman. Abortion leg­is­la­tion in Nige­ria and court de­ci­sions on the sub­ject were ex­am­ined for this re­port.

Abortion in Nige­ria is gov­erned by two laws that dif­fer de­pend­ing on ge­o­graph­i­cal lo­ca­tion. North­ern Nige­ria is gov­erned by the Pe­nal Code and South­ern Nige­ria is gov­erned by the Crim­i­nal Code. The only le­gal way to have an abortion in Nige­ria is if hav­ing the child is go­ing to put the mother’s life in dan­ger.

The abortion laws of the Crim­i­nal Code en­forced by south­ern states, are ex­pressed within sec­tions 228, 229, and 230 with var­ied pun­ish­ments stip­u­lated. While sec­tion 228 states that “Any per­son pro­vid­ing a mis­car­riage to a woman is guilty of a felony and up to 14 years of im­pris­on­ment”, sec­tion 229 states that “Any woman ob­tain­ing a mis­car­riage is guilty of a felony and up to im­pris­on­ment for seven years”, and sec­tion 230 states that “Any­one sup­ply­ing any­thing in­tended for a woman’s mis­car­riage is also guilty of a felony and up to three years of im­pris­on­ment.”

The Pe­nal Code on the other hand op­er­ates in north­ern states, with abortion laws con­tained in sec­tions 232, 233, and 234. The sec­tions of the pe­nal code par­al­lel the crim­i­nal code, be­sides the ex­cep­tion for abortion with the pur­pose of sav­ing the life of the mother.

The Pe­nal Code on the other hand op­er­ates in north­ern states, with abortion laws con­tained in sec­tions 232, 233, and 234. The sec­tions of the pe­nal code par­al­lel the crim­i­nal code, be­sides the ex­cep­tion for abortion with the pur­pose of sav­ing the life of the mother.

The Pe­nal Code’s pun­ish­ments in­clude im­pris­on­ment, fine, or both. The of­fenses of these codes are pun­ish­able re­gard­less of whether the mis­car­riage was suc­cess­ful. Mean­while, no pro­vi­sions have been made to the Crim­i­nal Code mak­ing ex­cep­tions for the preser­va­tion of the mother’s life.

Nige­ria’s abortion laws makes it one of the most re­stric­tive coun­tries re­gard­ing abortion.

Nige­ria’s abortion laws makes it one of the most re­stric­tive coun­tries re­gard­ing abortion.

Abortion Sta­tis­tics

Since abortion is il­le­gal in Nige­ria, many women re­sort to un­safe abortion meth­ods, lead­ing to abortion-re­lated com­pli­ca­tions and in­creas­ing mor­tal­ity and mor­bid­ity rates in the coun­try. Ac­cord­ing to re­search done by the Guttmacher In­sti­tute, an es­ti­mated 456,000 un­safe abor­tions are done in Nige­ria ev­ery year.

Also, in a joint study car­ried out by the So­ci­ety of Gyne­col­o­gists and Ob­ste­tri­cians of Nige­ria and Nige­ria’s Min­istry of Health, es­ti­mates of women who en­gage in un­safe abortion were put at about 20,000 each year.

Also, in a joint study car­ried out by the So­ci­ety of Gyne­col­o­gists and Ob­ste­tri­cians of Nige­ria and Nige­ria’s Min­istry of Health, es­ti­mates of women who en­gage in un­safe abortion were put at about 20,000 each year.

Re­search has re­vealed that only 40 per cent of abor­tions are per­formed by physi­cians with im­proved health fa­cil­i­ties while the re­main­ing per­cent­age are per­formed by non-physi­cians.

Abortion ac­counts for 40 per cent of ma­ter­nal deaths in Nige­ria, mak­ing it the sec­ond lead­ing cause of ma­ter­nal mor­tal­ity in the coun­try.

Marie Stopes Op­er­a­tions in Nige­ria

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment on the clinic’s web­site, “Marie Stopes Nige­ria opened its first clinic in 2009, be­com­ing one of the few providers of long-act­ing and per­ma­nent con­tra­cep­tion in the coun­try.”

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment on the clinic’s web­site, “Marie Stopes Nige­ria opened its first clinic in 2009, be­com­ing one of the few providers of long-act­ing and per­ma­nent con­tra­cep­tion in the coun­try.”

How­ever, a scroll down the page, the clinic is­sued a sta­tis­tics that it pre­vented 1,401,151 un­in­tended preg­nan­cies in 2018, and pre­vented 710,313 un­safe abor­tions in same year; which might loosely mean that they must have con­ducted, or in­ter­vened in those num­bers of ‘il­le­gal’ abortion cases, that could have turned out un­safe.

IPO’s Tes­ti­mony

When the clinic’s ac­tiv­i­ties were ini­tially clamped down by the po­lice, THISDAY had en­gaged the In­ves­ti­gat­ing Po­lice Of­fi­cer (IPO), In­spec­tor Felix, in a phone con­ver­sa­tion where he con­firmed that he was part of the po­lice team that went on the op­er­a­tion on the said date. He also con­firmed that in­crim­i­nat­ing ex­hibits were re­cov­ered dur­ing the raid. He how­ever, ex­pressed his frus­tra­tion in charg­ing the case to court.

Ac­cord­ing to him, “the cur­rent po­si­tion is to bring in wit­nesses that can con­firm that they car­ried out abortion there. As at now, what we have is just the ma­te­ri­als and the files we re­trieved from there. And those things alone can­not work as­sum­ing we are charg­ing them to court. We need some­one who can tes­tify that I was there on so so date, and this was what they did to me. So that we can win the case. We can­not just charge the case, if not, we will not win.

Ac­cord­ing to him, “the cur­rent po­si­tion is to bring in wit­nesses that can con­firm that they car­ried out abortion there. As at now, what we have is just the ma­te­ri­als and the files we re­trieved from there. And those things alone can­not work as­sum­ing we are charg­ing them to court. We need some­one who can tes­tify that I was there on so so date, and this was what they did to me. So that we can win the case. We can­not just charge the case, if not, we will not win.

“The prob­lem we are hav­ing is this. The lan­guage on the doc­u­ment, if you are not a pro­fes­sional, you can’t ex­plain it in cor­rect terms. And that is where they trick you. The doc­u­ments we have, what I saw there is evac­u­a­tion and con­tra­cep­tives which the doctor said any­body can have evac­u­a­tion or con­tra­cep­tives but the treat­ment that fol­lows af­ter, is what de­ter­mines what type of con­tra­cep­tive or evac­u­a­tion. So that is the is­sue.

“The prob­lem we are hav­ing is this. The lan­guage on the doc­u­ment, if you are not a pro­fes­sional, you can’t ex­plain it in cor­rect terms. And that is where they trick you. The doc­u­ments we have, what I saw there is evac­u­a­tion and con­tra­cep­tives which the doctor said any­body can have evac­u­a­tion or con­tra­cep­tives but the treat­ment that fol­lows af­ter, is what de­ter­mines what type of con­tra­cep­tive or evac­u­a­tion. So that is the is­sue.

“As a lay man, we know it as abortion but they will tell you that when they went into the uterus of the per­son, that they dis­cov­ered that she needed evac­u­a­tion not abortion, and that it is the lay man that doesn’t know what he is say­ing. They would say they are not the one that men­tioned the word, but the pa­tient who came. But be­cause as a pro­fes­sional, I know that what I am treat­ing isn’t abortion, but evac­u­a­tion or con­tra­cep­tive, the only con­crete way is through in­vi­ta­tion of vic­tims. We are try­ing to in­vite two un­der­age girls from the list we re­cov­ered from the clinic. They are the ones clos­est to us here.

“As a lay man, we know it as abortion but they will tell you that when they went into the uterus of the per­son, that they dis­cov­ered that she needed evac­u­a­tion not abortion, and that it is the lay man that doesn’t know what he is say­ing. They would say they are not the one that men­tioned the word, but the pa­tient who came. But be­cause as a pro­fes­sional, I know that what I am treat­ing isn’t abortion, but evac­u­a­tion or con­tra­cep­tive, the only con­crete way is through in­vi­ta­tion of vic­tims. We are try­ing to in­vite two un­der­age girls from the list we re­cov­ered from the clinic. They are the ones clos­est to us here.

“One of them has re­lo­cated out­side La­gos while the other is still in La­gos. But it is like they are scared. So we are look­ing out at how to per­suade them. The oth­ers on the list are very far away, and it would cost a lot to bring them over. But we would do our best.”

While the po­lice carry on with their in­ves­ti­ga­tion, the onus how­ever lies on the court to de­ter­mine whether the ac­tiv­i­ties of Marie Stopes are il­le­gal or not, es­pe­cially when it comes to mi­nors.

While the po­lice carry on with their in­ves­ti­ga­tion, the onus how­ever lies on the court to de­ter­mine whether the ac­tiv­i­ties of Marie Stopes are il­le­gal or not, es­pe­cially when it comes to mi­nors.

Marie Stopes Re­ac­tion

When THISDAY con­tacted Dr Bernard for his re­ac­tion he said: “All I can say is that, it is false, but I think you should speak to the head of­fice in Abuja. I can’t give you any de­tails. So just con­firm from them, and do your own re­search. There is a web­site, you can get the de­tails.

“I’m not say­ing I’m not au­tho­rised to talk but I’ll ad­vise you to speak to peo­ple that are su­pe­rior. Speak with Abuja. You can’t be talk­ing to me and want to re­port that. You un­der­stand? This is an in­ter­na­tional or­gan­i­sa­tion, it wouldn’t make sense. So it is bet­ter you speak with some­one su­pe­rior.”

“I’m not say­ing I’m not au­tho­rised to talk but I’ll ad­vise you to speak to peo­ple that are su­pe­rior. Speak with Abuja. You can’t be talk­ing to me and want to re­port that. You un­der­stand? This is an in­ter­na­tional or­gan­i­sa­tion, it wouldn’t make sense. So it is bet­ter you speak with some­one su­pe­rior.”

THISDAY called the Abuja of­fice and was en­gaged by one Uche who de­bunked the re­port. On their stand on abortion she said: “It is wrong. Abortion is legally re­stricted in Nige­ria, and here at Marie Stopes, we work strictly in line with that re­stric­tion. We only of­fer post abortion care, which is the care given to some­one who has had a mis­car­riage, and that mis­car­riage was not prop­erly treated; maybe the tis­sues are still there, that is the only care that we of­fer here.”

THISDAY called the Abuja of­fice and was en­gaged by one Uche who de­bunked the re­port. On their stand on abortion she said: “It is wrong. Abortion is legally re­stricted in Nige­ria, and here at Marie Stopes, we work strictly in line with that re­stric­tion. We only of­fer post abortion care, which is the care given to some­one who has had a mis­car­riage, and that mis­car­riage was not prop­erly treated; maybe the tis­sues are still there, that is the only care that we of­fer here.”

THISDAY went a step fur­ther to con­tact the clinic via What­sapp. Us­ing my sup­posed girl­friend’s pseudo name, Lil­ian Ezeobi, I claimed that when I car­ried out the act in their clinic, there was com­pli­ca­tions and needed to speak with the doctor. At no point did they deny ever car­ry­ing out abortion. Our con­ver­sa­tion went thus:

THISDAY went a step fur­ther to con­tact the clinic via What­sapp. Us­ing my sup­posed girl­friend’s pseudo name, Lil­ian Ezeobi, I claimed that when I car­ried out the act in their clinic, there was com­pli­ca­tions and needed to speak with the doctor. At no point did they deny ever car­ry­ing out abortion. Our con­ver­sa­tion went thus:

Re­porter: Good morn­ing. Please I need Dr. Fa­toye’s Num­ber.

Marie Stopes: Wel­come to the Marie Stopes Nige­ria (@MarieS­topesNG) Con­tact Cen­tre. We are here for you. Are you in­ter­ested in talk­ing about sex, pain­ful pe­ri­ods, preg­nancy, In­fec­tions, preg­nancy preven­tion, or fam­ily plan­ning? Please be rest as­sured that our con­ver­sa­tion is strictly con­fi­den­tial, please feel free to talk to me. Why do you need Doctor Fa­toye’s num­ber?

Marie Stopes: Wel­come to the Marie Stopes Nige­ria (@MarieS­topesNG) Con­tact Cen­tre. We are here for you. Are you in­ter­ested in talk­ing about sex, pain­ful pe­ri­ods, preg­nancy, In­fec­tions, preg­nancy preven­tion, or fam­ily plan­ning? Please be rest as­sured that our con­ver­sa­tion is strictly con­fi­den­tial, please feel free to talk to me. Why do you need Doctor Fa­toye’s num­ber?

Re­porter: Al­right thanks. But may I know who I’m speak­ing with first. Is it Jades­ola (the re­cep­tion­ist at the Lawan­son clinic that at­tended to us)?

Marie Stopes: This num­ber be­longs to Marie Stopes Nige­ria con­tact cen­ter.

Re­porter: I’m aware from see­ing this. (re­fer­ring to the auto re­sponse mes­sage). I’ll re­ally love to speak with Dr. Fa­toye be­cause he gave me this num­ber, and I had thought he would be the one I’m chat­ting with.

Marie Stopes: We do not give out our doc­tors num­bers, If I may ask which hospi­tal and lo­ca­tion does Doctor Fa­toye work? Re­porter: Su­rulere, La­gos. Lawan­son.

Marie Stopes: We do not give out our doc­tors num­bers, If I may ask which hospi­tal and lo­ca­tion does Doctor Fa­toye work? Re­porter: Su­rulere, La­gos. Lawan­son.

Marie Stopes: Please go ahead and tell me what the prob­lem is, I will be able to help you. Re­porter: Okay, hope this is very con­fi­den­tial.

Marie Stopes: I want to as­sure you that this con­ver­sa­tion is strictly con­fi­den­tial, please feel free to talk to me.

Re­porter: Hmm. Aiit. I was there last week for an abortion. Rea­son why I left La­gos af­ter the pro­ce­dure. Cause I don’t want any­one around me to know what’s go­ing on. But I’m still bleed­ing. Kind of scared. He told me it should take 4 days, but it has gone be­yond it.

Re­porter: Hmm. Aiit. I was there last week for an abortion. Rea­son why I left La­gos af­ter the pro­ce­dure. Cause I don’t want any­one around me to know what’s go­ing on. But I’m still bleed­ing. Kind of scared. He told me it should take 4 days, but it has gone be­yond it.

Marie Stopes: May I know your name please. Re­porter: Lil­lian Ezeobi.

Marie Stopes: Okay. I will for­ward his num­ber to you right away.