Consider legalising abortion

THE EDITOR, Madam:

International Safe Abortion Day is about promoting safety. And that cannot be achieved without the decriminalisation of abortion.

Jamaica has had severely restrictive criminal laws for more than 150 years, yet the Caribbean has the highest abortion rate in the world. So, no one needs to ‘promote’ abortion.

Only two English-speaking Caribbean countries have laws permitting abortion, Barbados and Guyana. After only 10 years of legal abortion in Barbados, 1983-92, admissions for complications from abortion had dropped by 71 per cent. In Guyana, after 30 years, 1995-2025, the drop was 97 per cent. There were almost none.

Looking at 154 countries whose abortion rates and abortion laws we could find, we looked at abortion rates as being high (more than 30), medium (15-30), and low (less than 15); and we looked at laws as being criminal or legal.

Of the 58 countries with high abortion rates, 36 (62 per cent) relied on criminal laws; of the 46 with low abortion rates, 44 (96 per cent) relied on legal abortion. The results are statistically significant.

In Barbados, the number of abortions at Queen Elizabeth Hospital fell by 53 per cent in 10 years. And the decline among teenagers was even higher at 59 per cent.

Similarly, in Guyana, by 2025, the abortion rate had declined by 20 per cent, and the unintended pregnancy rate had dropped by 28 per cent.

Clearly, the drop in the unintended pregnancy rate is a strong indicator that family planning improved after legalisation. Almost all women who had abortions at Georgetown Public Hospital requested either IUDs or implants. That contraceptive transition to long-term reversible contraceptives greatly reduced the risk of unplanned pregnancies.

The political class is subordinate to the dogma of the Church. And dogma does not yield to evidence. So, we continue to ignore the obvious, bury our heads in the sand, and deny the harm we do to the sanctity of life. We cling to the form of the law and pretend not to see how terribly it ravages the lives of the unborn, girls, and women alike.

Fearful of giving the wrong moral signal, we hang on to a criminal law that fails to prevent abortions, fosters an unregulated, clandestine industry, and guarantees harm, especially to poor women and girls. And we do this in the name of the sanctity of life. This is hypocrisy and cruelty.

FRED NUNES