Chiradzulu West Member of Parliament (MP) Mathews Ngwale has withdrawn a motion on Termination of Pregnancy Bill.

Ngwale, who is also chairperson for the parliamentary committee on health, said he received resistance from both lawmakers in the House and the country at large.

“I have withdrawn this Bill from the Order Paper, because you saw the resistance I received in the House and also in general in the country, last time when I was about to present the Bill, the political parties prevented me from presenting.

“What I have seen is that this problem we are prescribing to the people, people are not telling us what they want, that’s where the disconnect,” observed Ngwale.

The legislator has since asked the stakeholders behind pushing of the Bill to carry on with sensitisation and avoid using the lawmakers to accomplish their agenda.

“So, I have instructed the stakeholders that we will not move like we have been moving on, because of the resistance I met in Parliament, we cannot go on like that so I want to see demand creation first, we must create demand.

“I want to see people petitioning parliament not stakeholders coming here to petition MPs to the vote for the law to be changed but people should petition parliament to change the law, which means we need to use the media,” said Ngwale.

Malawi Penal Code allows for the termination of a pregnancy only if the life of a mother is at risk.

Ngwale, through his Private Member’s Bill, observed that there are ever increasing number of justifiable situations for the termination of unwanted pregnancies which have not been covered by existing laws.

He reasoned that the Termination of Pregnancy Bill’ which when passed by the august House, would expand grounds for safe abortion.