HEALTH Minister Rudyard Spencer yesterday denied allegations that the Government was fast-tracking legislation to legalise abortion, but maintained that the administration would not resile from its responsibility to deal with the issue.

The minister told journalists at a hastily-called press briefing at Jamaica House that the Government intended to be a mere facilitator in the process of debating a report, inherited from the previous Government, which recommended conditional legalisation of abortion.

Spencer was responding to claims made by an alliance of churches, Christian lawyers and medical organisations on Thursday, who objected to the Government's decision to table the report in Parliament and wants the minister to stop the process of public discussion.

"I find it very discouraging; very, very discouraging when I heard on the radio yesterday that the Government was trying to fast-track this bill," the minister reacted.

He pointed out that there was no bill on the table at Parliament dealing with abortion, but only the report that he had tabled which, he said, was in response to requests from people who want the issue fully ventilated. In response, the Government is setting up the framework for people to come in and address the parliamentary committee on their concerns, Spencer said.

He said having done that, there would be widespread discussions across the island which would be facilitated by his ministry.

"This is what we are supposed to do. This is what we are doing and we will not resile from our responsibility nor obligation," the minister said.

"We are not pro-abortion nor anti-abortion. The question of abortion has been on the agenda for quite sometime and when we came to office in September, as minister of health I saw a report that should have been presented to Parliament but wasn't. I had some discussions with the anti-abortion group and advised them that I wouldn't be taking a bill to Parliament before widescale public discussion on the subject. What we eventually did in Parliament was to set the background and the framework for that public discussion by tabling the report as distinct from a bill," Spencer told the briefing.

He said that after the report was tabled, a Joint Select Committee, which includes members from both sides of both the House and the Senate was named and they will hold public discussions on the issue at Gordon House. They will table a report which will be debated in the House of Representatives and a conscience vote taken on the issue, as was the case with the issue of the legalisation of ganja.

Supporting the minister, the ministry's chief medical officer, Dr Sheila Campbell-Forrester, said that she believed that the exercise will bring to the fore the various issues which can be addressed in the public domain and taken into consideration by Parliament.

The report of the abortion policy review advisory group, which was tabled in Parliament last month, suggested that abortions be limited to up to 22 weeks after pregnancy, except under "exceptional circumstances".

They said that abortion of pregnancies up to 12 weeks' gestation (calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period) could be performed in registered facilities by an authorised medical practitioner in consultation with the woman. The methods recommended were pharmaceuticals and menstrual vacuum aspiration.

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