Tag Archives: International

It’s the stuff you see in horror films. Women kidnapped, forced to become pregnant, their babies harvested for body parts or slavery.

But that’s exactly what is happening in today’s world, and specifically, in Abia, Nigeria. A so-called “baby farm” was just raided by Nigerian police, where 32 pregnant teenage girls were found. The girls carried unwanted pregnancies, and were either lured in with the promise of money or kidnapped. Either way, the girls were locked up and forced to go full term and give birth. The babies were then trafficked or sold for body parts for witchcraft rituals.

While another “baby farm” was found in Nigeria in 2008, and human trafficking is a huge problem for Nigeria, somehow the U.S. government has given Nigeria a Tier 1 rating for human trafficking, which basically means they are meeting all the standards of the US’s Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Yet here we are, with the second mass enslavement of young pregnant girls found within 3 years.

Why do these activities even occur? Looking at Nigeria, we have to look at the value of a woman. Few and far between are reproductive health care clinics; abortion is illegal and highly stigmatized; maternal mortality is high; add all this to a mixture of early marriage and early pregnancies and you have a recipe for a slaughter of women’s rights.  Read more... (298 words, 1 image, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)