PRO-LIFERS continue to staunchly resist the proposed legalisation of abortion, arguing that it is a shortsighted approach to treating the social problems which contribute to unwanted and unplanned pregnancies.

In a heavily researched presentation earlier this month to the Joint Select Committee of Parliament contemplating the report of the Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group, Romain Stewart, one of several individuals to make submissions to the committee, argued that the Advisory group's assertion that abortion was 'prevalent' in Jamaica was not justified.

Stewart said the claim was contradicted by the 2002 Reproductive Health Survey of the National Family Planning Board released in 2005, which states that "the rate of abortion in Jamaica is low and, accordingly, the number of respondents reporting they have ever had abortions is very small".

Stewart said the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN), which did the fieldwork for this survey, carried out 7,168 interviews out of which only 102 women were identified as each having had at least one induced abortion.

"They are competent surveyors; they know how to soften the sources of error. This yields a portion of only 1.42 per cent of the sample who have ever had a direct or induced abortion. This 1.42 per cent is a scientific representative of the entire reproductive female population of Jamaica. There is no scientific evidence of equal or greater strength to contradict STATIN's," Stewart said.

At the time of the survey Jamaica's population was 2,612,500. Of that figure, only women between ages 15 and 49 were considered reproductive.

Stewart argued that based on a survey of the causes of maternal death conducted between 1993 and 1995, the problem Jamaica faced with women with regards to maternal mortality is eclampsia - a medical condition where hypertension arises in pregnancy.

"Eclampsia accounted for 34 per cent. It has the lion's share and the best remedy is prevention, but how is this to be done when the same document says that 56.8 per cent of women surveyed from Age 15-49 had never had a gynaecological examination," he queried.

"How is it that more than half of Jamaica's women pass through their child-bearing years and never enter a gynaecologist's office and how does the government of Jamaica hope to tackle eclampsia if those women don't see a professional?" he asked further.

"Abortion is not leading (prevalent). It has before it gestational hypertension, haemorrhage, thromboembolism, other indirect deaths, general tract sepsis, genital tract trauma, diabetes mellitus, cardiac disorders, sickle cell disease, and then you have abortion which only contributed three per cent over the period," Stewart said referring to the statistics.

He further argued that "direct abortion was foregone conclusion" based on the terms of reference for the Advisory group which mandated the group to "draft recommended amendments to the existing Offences against the Person Act in support of termination of pregnancy".

Turning to the Advisory group's final report which said there was "strong suspicion that many of these women resorted to unsafe abortions", Stewart said 'strong suspicion' was not scientific enough.

"Abortion is wrong and no ends or means can make it right," he noted.

In the meantime, Dr John Wright who appeared as an individual in his own right, argued that legalising abortion will not fix the social problems which contribute to unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. He said abortion was a shortsighted approach to treat social problems with a medical procedure that affects the weakest.

Meanwhile Donovan Cole, a minister of religion, argued that the legalisation of abortion would be detrimental warning that abortion brings with it new problems.

"It amounts to taking innocent life with the consent of the law - may we never go there," Cole said.

The Advisory group was established by former Health Minister John Junor in 2005 following concerns from a public health perspective and surveys, that abortion was the third leading cause of death in adolescents and that unsafe abortions constituted the eighth leading cause of maternity death in Jamaica.

The group was asked to advise on the development of a comprehensive national policy on abortion, including any required supporting legislation, and to articulate a policy for the production of safe reproductive health services in Jamaica, with special emphasis on safe abortions.

It was also asked to draft guidelines to ensure that the services provided would be safe and acceptable, and also draft recommended amendments to the existing 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, in support of termination of pregnancy for medical and humanitarian reasons, for example, in the case of statutory rape.

Currently, under the Offences Against the Person Act, persons identified as having made the slightest contribution to abortion are liable to life in prison.

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