Criminal law in Nigeria is bifurcated. The Criminal Code applies to the Southern states and the Penal Code applies to the Northern states.

The performance of an abortion is a criminal offense unless it is performed to save a pregnant woman's life. Although the laws in Southern and Northern Nigeria are essentially similar, they are worded differently. The Criminal Code provides:

Any person, who, with intent to procure miscarriage of a woman whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to her or causes her to take any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.

Moreover, a woman who with the intention to "procure" her own "miscarriage" unlawfully "administers to herself any poison ... or uses any force of any kind ... or permits any such thing or means to be administered" is liable for seven years imprisonment. The Penal Code also regards the performance of most abortions as a criminal act. It states that any person who "voluntarily causes a woman with child to miscarry" is punishable by imprisonment. A woman who causes herself to miscarry is considered to be within the meaning of the provision. Both the Criminal Code and the Penal Code impose a penalty of 14 years of imprisonment for the performance of an abortion. Criminal law permits the performance of an abortion necessary to save a woman's life. The Criminal Code stipulates that a person "is not criminally responsible for performing in good faith and with reasonable care and skill a surgical operation ... upon an unborn child for the preservation of the mother's life." Similarly, the Penal Code permits an abortion to save the life of a woman.

Laws cover other abortion-related offenses. For example, in Southern Nigeria, the Criminal Code provides that it is illegal to supply materials knowing that they may be used to produce an abortion. The punishment for this crime is three years of imprisonment. The Penal Code provides that any person who, with intent to cause a miscarriage, undertakes any act that causes a woman's death is subject to imprisonment for 14 years. It also makes it unlawful for a person to "use force to any woman and thereby unintentionally caus[e] her to miscarry."