Baby making factories and the Reproductive Health Rights of Women in Nigeria

Abstract

Campaigns have recently been launched in Nigeria to tackle the abduction of young, poor and vulnerable girls for the purpose of bearing babies which are illegally sold to women unable to have children. The paper argues that forcing women to procreate violates their reproductive health rights. Women should have autonomy in deciding whether and when to have a child. In the same vein, separating children from their parents is an infraction of their right to parental care and protection. While Nigerian Constitution does not contain explicit provisions on women’s reproductive health rights, such provisions can be inferred from the fundamental human rights that it upholds. Children’s rights are also protected in the constitution and in other legal and policy frameworks. Nigeria has also created a dedicated agency to prevent human trafficking. The paper adopts the doctrinal method of research to review children’s rights and women’s reproductive health rights in Nigeria and the various instruments that protect such rights. It unravels the reasons for the booming trade in babies.  It reveals that the growing number of ‘baby making factories’ is due to the government’s failure to show sufficient commitment to tackling this menace  using available domestic instruments. The paper concludes that effective monitoring of the activities of child charity organisations, prosecuting and punishing operators of the baby making factories and mustering the political will to implement the international instruments on women’s reproductive health rights would go a long way in curbing the scourge of baby making factories in the country.

Keywords: Child trafficking, Reproductive health rights, Baby making factories