| The Womb Issue
Fourteen-year-old Grace’s father married her off to an older man in settlement of a debt. When the older man raped and impregnated her at the age of sixteen, Grace ran away and sought an abortion. She thought that the procedure would give her her life back and end that horrific chapter. Unfortunately, she did not survive.
Grace joined the ever-growing list of casualties of unsafe abortions in Nigeria.
Girls and women are constantly lost to unsafe abortions in Nigeria.
Image credit: Photo by Ezechiel Kouassi on Unsplash.
In Nigeria, abortion is criminalized in all cases except when pregnancy endangers the patient’s life. This forces many people to seek backstreet abortions. However, post-abortion care is legal and even governed by governmental guidelines. The NGO Komfot Health was founded to help save women’s lives in the aftermath of abortions performed in less-than-ideal conditions.
One of the founders, Sanasi Amos, is a cousin of Grace’s. She was twelve years old when Grace died, and did not fully grasp the gravity of what was unfolding, but remembers that the incident became a cautionary tale told in hushed tones. “We never spoke about it, but I just knew that there was so much stigma. They would tell you that if you attempted an abortion, you would end up the way Grace ended up,” Amos said.
Years later, Amos was admitted to university to study Demography and Social Statistics and took a course focused on fieldwork and data collection on public health concerns. This led her to research post-abortion care, and she quickly learned how misunderstood the concept was. People did not know that post-abortion care was necessary, or what symptoms should ring alarm bells. They did not know how to seek help, or if it was even legal. Even educated women often avoided seeking care out of fear, shame, or misinformation.
Upon graduating, she saw the same pattern among healthcare providers. Post-abortion care was either treated cautiously or altogether avoided, with patients being turned away when they presented characteristic symptoms of having undergone an illegal abortion. Amos teamed up with Elizabeth Enu-Akan, a feminist and abortion rights activist, and medical doctor, Dr. Uzo, to found Komfot Health, with the mission of providing life-saving post-abortion care.
Care begins when patients reach out through social media or the WhatsApp bot. Women experiencing incomplete or missed abortions are first connected to a counselor, who verifies their identity and test results and checks in on their symptoms. From there, the pathway branches. Emergency cases are referred immediately, while others are matched with licensed care providers, including doctors, midwives, and community health workers, depending on what services are available locally. Treatment may include manual vacuum aspiration to remove tissues that remain after incomplete or failed abortions.
For Amos, this process is best understood through the lens of triage. “For post-abortion care, I like to use the usual healthcare triage to explain it,” she said. The first priority is addressing the physical harm caused by unsafe procedures. That can mean managing heavy bleeding, sepsis, or internal injuries—often the most urgent and life-threatening consequences women arrive with.
Once complications are stabilized, care moves into its second phase: contraception. “Most of them do not know that fertility returns two weeks after a procedure,” Amos explained. At this stage, counselors and healthcare workers talk women through their options and offer contraceptive support, helping prevent another unintended pregnancy at a moment when many are still physically and emotionally vulnerable.
The final step is one Amos considers as essential as medical treatment. “The third one is basically supporting them mentally through their journey,” she said. This includes emotional reassurance, counseling, and continued contact, recognizing that post-abortion care does not end when the physical symptoms subside.
The topic of abortion usually carries a lot of stigma in Nigerian culture.
Image credit: Photo by Johnnathan Tshibangu on Unsplash.
The emotional aftermath of abortion is all the more difficult because it remains a taboo topic in Nigeria, so women often have no one to talk to about their ordeal. That isolation creates fertile ground for fear and misinformation, particularly around what care is legal and where care can be sought. For instance, many women aren’t aware that Nigerian law permits abortion when a pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. And since society is hyper-religious, even in cases where it would be legal, the stigma surrounding the procedure forces women underground. Alongside providing abortion care, Komfot Health also hopes to close the knowledge gaps preventing women from getting the care they need.
Komfot Health is pushing for better reproductive health conditions for Nigerian women.
Image credit: Photo by Sierra Houk on Unsplash.
Amos has a bright view of the future. Having recently joined an accelerator program, the team is developing a USSD-based solution to reach women without smartphones or reliable internet access. They are also exploring last-mile delivery hubs and training licensed pharmacists on correct drug administration, which would allow them to extend the network of informed providers beyond urban centers.
Progress, however, comes with risk. The team constantly battles misinformation campaigns, both online and offline, that threaten their personal safety. Amos herself has been summoned to police stations several times to defend herself against accusations of procuring abortions. However, they remain undeterred in their mission to provide easy access to post-abortion care and sexual and reproductive services.
Because Grace deserved better, and so do all Nigerian women.
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©2018 -2025 – TrooRa is a registered trademark of Rare Luxury Living LLC TrooRa Magazine, A Fortunest Group and is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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