Will the UN pressure Boko Haram's pregnant captives to abort?

Nigeria’s military recently has rescued hundreds of women and girls abducted by the violent Islamic militant group Boko Haram. Many are pregnant, likely through sexual abuse or forced marriages. Though abortion is illegal in Nigeria in most cases, pro-life aid groups fear the women will be used to promote an abortion agenda in Africa and the United States.

Since January 2014, Boko Haram has kidnapped at least 2,000 women and girls, training them to fight and using them as sexual slaves, Amnesty International reported in April. Over the past few weeks, Nigeria’s military has rescued nearly 700 victims. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is offering counseling and health services, including assistance with childbirths.

But the U.K.-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) fears UNFPA will pressure some victims into obtaining abortions while they are emotionally vulnerable.

“It is extremely worrying that some of these women may undergo abortions, which could cause them further physical and emotional trauma in their already weakened state,” said SPUC spokeswoman Antonia Tully. “The deaths of their unborn babies would add to the toll of lives lost in this tragic situation.”

UNFPA has not released an official report on the number of pregnant women among the rescued abductees. But on May 6, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said a “large number” of the rescued girls and women are expecting. More than 200 women at an internally displaced persons camp in Nigeria’s Borno state are pregnant, though UNFPA couldn’t confirm how many were abductees. Nigeria-based Vanguard newspaper reported several of the rescued women were visibly pregnant.

Despite the uncertain number of pregnancies, the pro-abortion Global Justice Center is using the rape victims to pressure the Obama administration to allow U.S. humanitarian aid to fund abortions, said Lisa Correnti, executive director of the Center for Family and Human Rights.

“For years the Global Justice Center has been pressuring the Obama administration to gut the Helms amendment, allowing U.S. humanitarian aid to cover abortion,” she said in a report. “The awful situation of hundreds of girls being kidnapped by Boko Haram has allowed this group and other pro-abortion groups to amplify their demands for a policy change for U.S.-funded ‘humanitarian abortion.’”

But Nigerian church leaders are speaking out in opposition. Rt. Rev James Olusola Odedeji, the bishop of the Lagos West diocese in Nigeria, condemned the suggestion of abortions for the victims, noting the Anglican Church opposes abortion in all cases.