In the January 15 edition of The Gleaner, the issue of abortion was squarely placed as the lead story. According to this news item written by Tyrone Reid, the recommendations of the Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group which was appointed by the former Minister of Health, John Junor, has been tabled in the Jamaican Parliament.
This step is very important in the country's desire to make policies based on solid knowledge and research rather than responding to the personal belief systems of those who make the loudest noises in the names of their many gods. These noises are extremely strident when sociocultural and economic issues are discussed. The most contentious of these issues are abortion, prostitution and casino gambling.
GODS underquoted on issues
It is on these issues that all our good gods seem to be quoted. These gods are less quoted on the oversexualisation of our children, the continuing horrendous grinding poverty that dehumanise so many of our citizens, greed and corruption in both the private and public sectors, sexual abuse of girls and boys in and out of churches and the nepotism in both Church and State.
As someone who has been involved in the international struggle for quality education, positive race relations, gender equality and the empowerment of women, I am of the opinion that rather than engaging in a religious war over women's bodies, we should all take a sober evaluation of the issue of unsafe abortions.
who on abortion
To this end, I use this opportunity to share with my readers some of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) findings on this issue.
In 2007, the WHO released the fifth edition of Unsafe Abortion. In this publication, it is pointed out that a woman dies every eight minutes somewhere in a developing country because of complications arising from unsafe abortion. The profile of such a woman is one who has little or no money to access safe services, is perhaps in her teens and living in a rural community which has little social support to deal with her unplanned pregnancy. Such a young woman might have been raped by an acquaintance, a father, uncle or pastor, or she might have experienced an accidental pregnancy due to the failure of the contraceptive method she was using. She probably first attempted to self-induce the termination of her unwanted pregnancy and after that failed, she turned to an unskilled but relatively inexpensive provider.
According to the WHO, "This is a real-life story of so many women in developing countries in spite of the major advancements in technologies and in public health."
history of neglect
The tragedy of the women and girls who are exposed far too regularly to unsafe abortions is linked to the fact that their situation is merely a reflection of a history of abuse, neglect and devaluation of the female presence in society.
On this issue, the WHO publication reminds us that methods to terminate unwanted pregnancies are known to have existed since ancient times and as far back as 5,000 years ago, one Chinese emperor articulated in clear terms the use of mercury for inducing abortion.
In fact, research documents point to more than 100 traditional methods of inducing abortion. Perhaps, the traditional practices of rural Jamaica are amongst these.
caustic potion
This writer recalls vividly that as a young girl, I eavesdropped on a conversation of adult women who were convinced that a 15-year-old girl who died mysteriously in the district had drunk a potion of caustic 'white lime' in her effort to get rid of her pregnancy. To this day, no one knows which of the lecherous older men had violated this girl and made her pregnant.
Obviously, modern times are merely an extension of ancient practices when it comes to the issues, practices and values that result in unwanted pregnancies.
The WHO seeks to remind us that globally "approximately 210 million women become pregnant each year, some 130 million of them go on to deliver live-born infants. The remaining 80 million pregnancies end in stillbirth, or spontaneous or induced abortion. Approximately 42 million pregnancies are voluntarily terminated each year - 22 million within national legal systems and 20 million outside them. In the latter case, the abortions are often performed by unskilled providers or in unhygienic conditions or both".
Developing countries are woefully short of health services to ensure safe abortions. This leads to the stark reality that the majority of unsafe abortions occur in developing societies. The impact of the lack of proper health care, adequate reproductive and health services, the increased and continuing violence against women and girls, the rise in teenage pregnancies, forced marriages and debilitating poverty are all factors that are contributing to the pressure on the national budget and health-care systems of some of the poorest countries in the world.
unsafe abortions
The WHO defines unsafe abortion "as a procedure for terminating an unintended pregnancy carried out either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment that does not conform to minimal medical standards, or both". Unsafe abortion is a public health and economic issue.
It is, therefore, incumbent on all governments and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations to commit themselves to ensure that all their citizens can access adequate, affordable and safe reproductive health services. This is the basic requirement to ensure that women and girls can make choices in relationship to the timing, spacing and desirability of any of their pregnancies.
When the Jamaican Government ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and signed off on the outcome document of the 1994 Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the 1995 Beijing Platform of Action, it committed itself to finding ways to strengthen its commitment to women's health rights and to deal with the health aspects of unsafe abortion by expanding and improving family planning services and keeping women and girls safe from rape, incest, carnal abuse and all other aspects of gender-based violence.
It is within this broad human rights framework that the issue of unsafe abortions must be debated and addressed.
Dr Glenda Simms is a gender expert and consultant.
