The right to abortion versus the protection of the right to be born

Benin, like many African countries, has for a long time refused access to abortion to women who wish to have it voluntarily. This opposition stemmed not only from ancestral values and traditions that prohibit any idea of abortion, which is considered a crime and severely punished by the guardians of tradition, but also from the legislative legacy left by the colonizer through the French penal code of 1810 and the French code of medical ethics of July 31, 1920. But inspired by the Maputo Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa of July 11, 2003, Benin timidly began admitting recourse to abortion two decades ago before broadening the conditions of access to abortion by Law 2021-12 of December 20, 2021, amending and supplementing Law 2003-04 of March 3, 2003 on sexual health and reproduction.In a global context marked by strong polemics and controversies on the issue of abortion, one could ask what is the interest of a liberalization of the practice. How can we preserve the right to life of the unborn child?