Pregnant Girls Rescued from a Baby Factory in Nigeria

Pregnant Girls Rescued from a Baby Factory in Nigeriasupport womens-rights
Pregnant Girls Rescued from a "Baby Factory" in Nigeria
posted by: Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux 23 hours ago





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16 comments
Sometimes, stories about human trafficking literally make me ill. This latest story from the BBC and the NY Daily News definitely falls into that category: Nigerian police raided a clinic, allegedly set up to provide resources for pregnant teens, and rescued 32 girls between the ages of 15 and 17, who were locked up and being used to provide babies. The newborns from the "baby factory" were then sold for ritual "witchcraft" or adoption.

The girls told authorities that the doctor in charge of the clinic, Hyacinth Orikara, was forcing them to sell their babies to him for about $190, depending on the babies' gender (male babies, unsurprisingly, are deemed more valuable). The babies are worth shockingly large sums on the black market. He could face up to 14 years in prison for child abuse and human trafficking.

The practice of luring desperate pregnant teenagers into clinics and then forcing them to give up their babies is common in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, where unmarried women can face total social exile if they become pregnant. But it is apparently very rare for traffickers to be caught and prosecuted.

This horrible story is just another reminder of how important it is for women to have access to contraception and education. If unmarried women felt that they had more options, perhaps there would be fewer women who saw these fake "clinics" as one of their most viable alternatives.
Read more: nigeria, womens rights, human trafficking, pregnant women, unmarried women, west africa, baby farm, selling babies, pregnant teens


16 commentsadd your comment

Sue Horwood says
Jun 4, 2011 7:43 AM
If this is the first time a 'clinic' has been discovered let us hope that it is the first in a long line and that all of them are closed and the doctors prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
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Alex H. says
Jun 4, 2011 6:48 AM
This is so bad that it beggars belief.Yet at the bottom of all these horrors are overpopulation and deprivation people in desperation and being exploited in the most horrific circumstances.Slavery is alive and well in many parts of this sick world!So who is raping these poor girls to keep them pregnant?What has the local mullah got to say about it?????