The United Nations Human Rights watchdog is asking Nigeria to ease its strict laws regulation abortion to show mercy to the women and girls who became pregnant after being kidnapped and assaulted by militants with the extremist group Boko Haram.

Women in Nigeria have few reproductive rights.  Abortion is legal only when the life of the woman is at risk. 

“During their captivity, lasting in many cases for months or even years, women and girls have been sexually enslaved, raped and forced into so-called marriages,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.  “I strongly urge the most compassionate possible interpretation of the current regulations in Nigeria to include the risk of suicide and risks to mental health for women and young girls who have suffered such appalling cruelty.”

Amnesty International estimates that Boko Haram fighters have kidnapped more than 2,000 women and girls in northeastern Nigeria since the beginning of 2014.  That includes the 276 girls seized from their boarding school in Chibok town last year in a kidnapping that sparked global outrage, and demands for the girls’ release under the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.  57 of the Chibok girls escaped, but 219 are still believed to be captives of the extremists.