Nepaul

WESTERN BUREAU:

Westmoreland gynaecologist Dr Evan Nepaul has said the Government should shift their attention from the controversy of legalising abortion and focus on creating programmes for women with unwanted pregnancies.

In an impassioned address at Montego Bay's 20th Annual Prayer Breakfast held last Thursday at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, Dr Nepaul said the question of whether or not a foetus is a person is an age-old controversy for which there will never be unanimity.

"There's no question in my mind that God recognises the foetus as a person," said the co-founder of the Royale Medical Centre. "We are opening a can of worms that we will never be able to close."

Dr Nepaul, who is also an elder at the Holiness Born Again Apostolic in Savanna-la-Mar, suggested that Government make laws that seek to sanctify and preserve life - rather than support the destruction of life.

Maternal mortality

The gynaecologist said care should be taken in emphasising that a change in the law or termination of pregnancy would reduce our maternal mortality rate. He also spoke to the fact that statistics point to the fact that there was a reduction in maternal mortality after the abortion law was passed in England in 1967.

"What we must do is place primary focus on the prevention of unwanted pregnancies," Dr Nepaul suggested.

Among some of the remedies listed were an increase in better patient education, early ante-natal attendance, dramatic improvement of the medical services to high risk mothers, urgent increase in primary and secondary care midwifery staff. The gynaecologist said Jamaica is presently way below the midwife per patient recom-mended made by the United Nations.

He said Jamaica needs more faith-based centres where women with unwanted pregnan-cies can be counselled.

"We need to revolutionise the adoption process and consider attracting foreign couples who desperately want to adopt a child," said Dr Nepaul.