LAGOS - The debate surrounding reproductive rights in Nigeria is often silenced by a thick veneer of cultural and religious inhibition, but Chika Okoli’s documentary, Care or Control, serves as a piercing, necessary disruption of that silence. Through a rigorous examination of the reproductive landscape, the film moves beyond the abstract legal arguments that often dominate public discourse to reveal the raw, human consequences of a system that prioritizes the regulation of the female body over the preservation of human life. By centering the personal accounts of survivors alongside expert testimony, Care or Control forces a confrontation with the reality that, in Nigeria, the choice to end a pregnancy is rarely a matter of preference, but an act of desperation born from a restrictive, often dangerous environment.
The documentary provides a harrowing look into the physical dangers faced by women who are pushed into the shadows by draconian laws and paralyzing social judgment. When reproductive healthcare is rendered inaccessible, it does not stop the need for such care; it merely shifts the procedure from the sterile, safe environment of a medical facility to the makeshift, perilous conditions of unqualified providers. The film meticulously catalogs the long-term health consequences of these unsafe procedures—complications that often lead to permanent infertility or chronic illness—framing these outcomes not as medical mistakes, but as systemic failures. For young victims of sexual assault, the lack of a legal or supportive avenue for care is not merely an inconvenience; it is a secondary trauma that can define the trajectory of their entire adult lives.
At the core of the film’s critique is the lingering influence of colonial-era penal codes, which continue to dictate the terms of reproductive justice in Nigeria long after the colonial administration has departed. These archaic statutes, initially drafted for a different social and temporal context, now function as tools of state control, trapping contemporary Nigerian women within a framework that ignores the complexities of modern life. The documentary does not shy away from the friction between these rigid legal structures and the deeply held religious beliefs that permeate every level of society. It effectively highlights the discordance between a culture that preaches the sanctity of life and a legislative reality that forces women to risk their lives in the pursuit of bodily autonomy. The film argues that these frameworks are not neutral; they are tools of institutional power that weaponize the medical needs of women against them.
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Perhaps the most resonant element of Care or Control is its exploration of the human cost of stigma. The shame and guilt that society imposes upon women who seek abortion are not accidental; they are functional, serving to isolate survivors and prevent the formation of a broader, more empathetic social consciousness. The documentary illustrates how this isolation forces women to suffer in silence, effectively stripping them of the support systems they desperately need during their most vulnerable moments. By humanizing these stories, the film achieves a transformational framing: it shifts the perception of these women from subjects of moral critique to survivors of a system that has fundamentally failed to provide them with the basic human right to health.
The conclusion of the documentary is an urgent, reasoned call to action that refuses to accept the status quo. It demands a societal pivot from a logic of control to a logic of compassion. Okoli advocates for the modernization of laws that reflect the reality of contemporary Nigeria, the standardization of safe, medically supervised procedures, and the urgent necessity of establishing judgment-free spaces where essential reproductive healthcare can be accessed without fear, harassment, or social exile.
The strength of Care or Control lies in its ability to take a conversation that is usually relegated to whispered backrooms and place it firmly in the public square. It argues that the health of a nation cannot be measured only by its economic growth or its infrastructural development, but by how it treats its most vulnerable members. By stripping away the layers of hypocrisy that shield the current system, the documentary leaves the viewer with a profound question: how much longer will the pursuit of societal control take precedence over the life and wellbeing of the women who are its citizens? It is a film that does not just seek to inform; it seeks to unsettle, demanding that we finally reconcile our laws with the fundamental necessity of care.
