Save the babies and leave the punishment of sin to God and not man.
Opinion: Global Voices By Nah Folasa
A well-known businessman (a friend of mine) once said to me, “Never write anything controversial. You’ll only make enemies, and it won’t help.”
So I hesitated to write this article.
Incidents such as the baby dumping in Kuala Lumber and the abondonment of a baby found in a rubbish bin at Mulifanua wharf has been going on for decades.
We keep seeing lurid headlines, hearing politicians and religious leaders make a hue and cry.
The dumping won’t stop until we decriminalise illegitimate sex and stop punishing girls for having babies out of wedlock.
Poverty, rape, abuse and lack of documentation.
These are some of the many reasons some mothers choose to abandon their babies.
Abortion is not strictly legal, birth control is still a taboo subject and yet we magically think that punishing fornication will stop it from happening.
Every time I bring up the topic of SEX EDUCATION there is so much outrage you would think I was advocating to teach kids how to do porn.
Teens will have sex. Adults will have sex. Unfortunately children will sometimes be the end result of said sex, because no form of birth control outside of the total removal of sex organs will guarantee no conception occurs.
The problem is there is a subsection of society that thinks people should be fined and jailed for having illicit sex.
People get hanged in Malaysia for drug possession and it hasn’t stopped people from taking drugs.
So here in Samoa, we need to get over our obsession with sex and our nosiness about people’s sexual activities. So long as they’re of age and it’s all done with consent, leave fornicating people alone.
Once babies are no longer “evidence” of a purported crime, then they will no longer be in danger of being disposed of.
There are many childless couples who would willingly adopt unwanted babies: we need to make the adoption process easier and allow these babies to find homes.
No baby should suffer from the sins of their parents; the criminalisation of fornication punishes the child and not just the parents.
We should also make it an option for unwed mothers to raise their babies without fear of persecution or stigma.
Until we start putting babies before dogma, they will continue to be abandoned or worse, killed.
It’s time to remember that the God of judgement is also the God of mercy. So let’s save the babies and leave the punishment of sin to God and not man.
