Secretary General for COPUA Dr Francis Makiya has warned that the development will continue to put at risk the life of majority of women in the country particularly young girls who resort to unsafe means of terminating the unwanted pregnancies.

"If Malawi is to prevent rampant maternal deaths due to unsafe abortion, the community should be in the fore front in finding solutions for the challenge. This would prevent authorities from imposing the safe abortion interventions on the people which end up backfiring", said Makiya.

He made the remarks in Chiradzulu on Wednesday during a stakeholders engagement the organisation with support from the Solidarity African Women Rights (SOAWR) held with some stakeholders representatives in the district aimed at empowering them to engage elected representative on the matter.

Counsel Mateyo Msiya, legal consultant who is also a member for COPUA legal committee who was also present during the engagement meeting blamed Members of Parliament for lacking political will on the matter.

Representative of Traditional Authority Onga where participants for the engagement meeting were drawn from said apart from encouraging young girls to abstain from sexual activities to prevent unwanted pregnancies, said he has intensified awareness meetings on the disadvantages of unsafe abortions.

The special law reform committee issued a report on the pregnancy termination bill in 2016 and since then it has not been tabled in Parliament.

Malawi is among countries with the highest number of maternal deaths with unsafe abortion being among the leading cause.