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Jamaican Nurses Oppose Government Plan to Decriminalize Abortion

By Hilary White

NEW KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 6, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Nurses' Association of Jamaica (NAJ) has joined its voice to a growing chorus of objectors to the government's plan to decriminalize abortion. In a statement this weekend, the NAJ said that rather than spend resources on abortion, more money should be dedicated to "reproductive-health services".

"An attempt by any government to make abortion widely available will be met by extensive agitation and opposition from us (members of the NAJ)," NAJ president Edith Allwood-Anderson said.

Dr. Doreen Brady West, told the Jamaica Gleaner, "Jamaica has basic needs now which are unmet in the health field. To leave these and to go and create abortion clinics would be a clear departure from the philosophy of practicng the healing art."

The two were speaking at a meeting at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston organized by the Coalition for the Defence of Life in response to the government's proposal.

While opposing abortion, however, Allwood-Anderson complained that more funding needs to be put towards contraception. But in Britain, where the contraceptive policy has been aggressively pursued by government health agencies, the result has been skyrocketing rates of unplanned pregnancy and, ultimately, of abortion.

Allwood-Anderson argued at the meeting, "Government has stopped supporting its distribution (of contraceptives) at its previous levels and there is no guarantee of supply. Even education in (nursing) schools has been cut back. We are saying that what Government needs to do is to maximize the existing services in terms of improving them."

In its proposal to decriminalize abortion, the Jamaican government is acting on a report from the pro-abortion Abortion Policy Review Advisory group, following on years of pressure from the United Nations and international population control groups to push for legalization.

While abortion remains in the criminal code, Jamaican common law allows it in cases of "significant foetal abnormality", where pregnancy would represent a threat to the "welfare or health" of the mother and in cases where pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Given the openness of these regulations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 22,000 abortions are committed in Jamaica each year.

Allwood-Anderson added, "Abortion leads to psychological, self-esteem and medical problems and a change in personality. It will cost you more to treat these women in the long run. There are also others who will never get pregnant again."

In February this year, a group of religious leaders including representatives from the Catholic and Evangelical churches and leaders of the youth pro-life movements and Christian doctors told media, "Not only is the project to liberalize abortion in Jamaica contrary to the Law of God, it also militates against the deeply-held values of this nation".

"The people of Jamaica have not asked for abortion; the churches have not asked for it nor has the vast majority of civic groups or their leaders. A reasonable person might rightly question who exactly it is that wishes to impose abortion on this nation," said Catholic Archbishop Donald J. Reece, speaking for the group.

Jamaica is a strongly Christian country with 65 percent of its population registered as either Catholic or Protestant.

Recent statistics show that Jamaica has thus far avoided the precipitous drop in birth rate that has occurred in many developed countries that have legalized abortion and distributed contraceptives. As of 2008 surveys, Jamaica's total fertility rate is 2.3 children born per woman, just over the rate necessary to maintain a stable population.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Jamaican Religious and Civic Leaders Respond to Proposal to Decriminalize Abortion
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08021109.html

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