Maybe we ought not to be surprised that a parliamentary committee is still dithering over the proposals for a new abortion law.

For what, fundamentally, is at play here, is the fear by politicians of the tyranny of the religious fundamentalists, who make up the majority of opponents of a modern and credible law regulating the termination of pregnancy. Those in Government are afraid that the vocal theocrats may mount a vengeful and well-funded campaign against them, while those in Opposition hope that their party would be beneficiary of any such assault.

This newspaper believes, however, that, after more than three decades, there has been enough talk. It is time to end the victimisation of women - primarily poor ones - which is the effect of keeping in place those sections of the Offences Against the Person Act that deal with abortion.

As the law now stands, anyone who seeks, or performs an abortion, except in the most narrow of circumstance, is at risk of facing criminal charges and being sent to jail.

Backroom operations

It is not surprising that most abortions in Jamaica have been largely unprofessional, backroom operations that put at risk the lives of too many of the women who seek to terminate pregnancies. Except that there is a clear social and economic bias here. The wealthy and well-to-do people can, and do, afford proper doctors to provide the service in decent clinical conditions. It is the poor who suffer.

It is in that context that in the mid-1970s the administration at the time sought to enact a specific abortion law, codifying the circumstances under which abortions would be allowed and stipulating the termination of pregnancies at specific public facilities. Unfortunately, those efforts were derailed by the purveyors of a zealot's morality, who would have the same thing happen again.

Their approach is to frighten people with arguments that what is being proposed is abortion-on-demand and that somehow women who undergo elective abortions are guilty of murder and of moral turpitude.

Scientific evidence

A contrary view is that a woman ought to be in control over her body, rather than being dictated to by commissars of morality. Important, too, is the scientific evidence that a foetus is not viable until the 20th week of gestation, which is in keeping with the proposals for Jamaica. Indeed, the chance of a foetus surviving outside the womb before the 24th week, the science suggests, is almost non-existent. Indeed, it is the fifth month of development before a foetus begins to become neurologically active or its cerebral cortex - a unique feature of the human brain - begins to develop. In that regard, the question of a personhood of a foetus is debatable.

But there are other issues, too, that the zealots of their constricted morality must confront, not least of which is the thousands of backroom abortions done in Jamaica each year and the hundreds, if not thousands, who end with complications from unsafe procedures. Perhaps, the next attempt will be to ban contraceptive pills as being a form of abortion.

Or maybe they are comfortable with the social dividend: misery and hovel for the poor, and decent clinical services for the wealthy.

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