In Sierra Leone, abortion is a criminal offence. Its abortion law does not specify any grounds for legal abortion, but abortion might be permitted to save the life of the mother.[note 1]
Abortion has been illegal since 1861. In the 2010s and 2020s, activists, politicians, and international organizations have opposed the ban on abortion. Religious groups and the general public have supported the ban. In 2015, Parliament approved a controversial bill to allow abortion, introduced by Isata Kabia, but President Ernest Bai Koroma refused to sign it. In 2022, the government of Julius Maada Bio unanimously backed a new bill to lift the ban on abortion.
Unsafe abortions are a major factor in Sierra Leone's maternal mortality rate, one of the highest in the world. The country has a stigma surrounding abortion, and many girls have little knowledge of it.
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