Opinion Piece - Abortion Decriminalization and other Western Ideas

The UNHRC reunited to discuss the decriminalization of abortion at the international level. Several Western countries proposed motions to decriminalize abortion everywhere, particularly in muslim countries. The arguments were not surprising: the west still believes they are entitled to tell our countries what they should believe. Our religion was challenged and defined as an illegitimate basis for the refusal to accept the decriminalization of abortion, citing the Sunni text and the specification of 120 days for the fetus to become a person and thus be entitled to the right to life.

The West clearly forgets that the „muslim religion“ as they call it is not one and universal but takes different shapes throughout a multitude of countries. The enforcement of western ideas such as „freedom“ and “democracy” tends to fall short whenever those same principles contrast with the western agenda. Isn‘t sovereignty a clear manifestation of freedom? In several of our countries there is a consensus that abortion is not acceptable in our societies, is this not democracy? Is this not the will of the people? Yet, western countries regard our culture, our customs as feeble and changeable.

The international legal order is illegitimate, that much is known. The global south or the so called „third world“ is openly underrepresented and once again western ideas are forced on us through their own institutions. Africa is and has always been a fundamental actor internationally, although we like to forget it. Instead of focusing on the very pressing issues that our countries face, like conflicts, insufficient infrastructures, education, availability of health care, all of which would lower the need for women to consider abortion, the focus is on a person‘s right to take another life. In fact, these very issues are cited as grounds to decriminalize abortions, placing blame into our states inability to provide for the population. Is this not typical? The West purposedly ignores the fact that our „underdevelopment“ is a direct result of their development and that what we need now is their money not their ideals. Investment in our countries, as often promised, would have a greater impact on the issue than simply making a medical procedure widely available and easy, while our peoples still die of preventable causes.