It's Friday evening, November 28, and I have just made two appointments to terminate my feigned six-week-old pregnancy. I simply need to decide which doctor and which price quotation is best.

The first one, which was tentatively scheduled for yesterday morning, wasn't easy to come by. I had to meet with the doctor in person before his office would even mention the word 'abortion'. And before he would agree to perform the operation, I would have had to satisfy the doctor that my red blood cell count was optimal. If the test proved that I wasn't anaemic, and if the doctor was satisfied that I wasn't "too impatient" and was, to some extent, psychologically stable, it would cost $15,000 to get it done. This is in addition to the $1,500 consultation fee, as well as the cost for the blood test.

I secured the second appointment, set for this week Thursday between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm, over the phone. A prominent doctor gave me the name of an equally prominent colleague of his who would do my termination. The colleague was busy with a patient when I called, but as soon as the nurse heard who had referred me, she talked freely and scheduled my appointment.

Unlike with the first case, I wasn't questioned about my age, where I worked, how long I've been working there or about what I studied in college. Also, I didn't have to endure a running commentary about such things as coarseness in Jamaican society, Michael Manley vs P J Patterson and T-shirts for Barack Obama's inauguration. I wasn't informed of any requisite blood tests or personal pre-dispositions. I was told, in response to a question, that the doctor would counsel before doing the procedure.

"When he examines you, he will choose the best method," the nurse told me. "He can give you a tablet and an injection or he can do the suction [procedure]."

"You have nothing to worry about. He'll give you painkillers and antibiotics because it's going to hurt," she said. She added, however, that the pain wouldn't prevent me from returning to work or school the following day.

"You won't be sick or weak. You can go to school the next day," she said.

She didn't tell me how many patients like myself the doctor saw, but said he only did termination of pregnancies on Thursday afternoons between 1:00 and 5:00.

It cost $17,000.

"If you're under 18 someone has to accompany you," she added.

In case number one, however, the general physician said he had to do a detailed assessment of the patient before committing himself to the procedure. And in my case, I apparently failed the test.

"You are terribly impatient," he said. "That's my assessment. You are very impatient [and therefore] you can't tolerate this procedure. It's not something you do in a hurry."

He said the methods of expulsion, which ranged from surgical, neo-surgical, medical, manual, bi-manual to inductions, were all time-consuming and depended on the stage [of pregnancy] as well as on the disposition or pre-disposition of the patient.

"In your case, you would have to be put to sleep. I wouldn't operate on you unless you were put to sleep. You are restless, you're disruptive, you're impatient," he said.

"For the surgical or neo-surgical, we give you medication - some form of sedative to relax the patient - dilate the cervix surgically and do either a suction or aspiration, a curettage. You have one that we use medication to induce dilation of the cervix and there's bleeding and after that you have to check the cavity using manual equipment; no kind of equipment that is going to cause any discomfort, he explained, adding that hypnotic drugs could also be used to put the patient to sleep.

"We're going to do your blood count to see if you're anaemic. If you have the optimal blood count to do it, then you'll be qualified to do it. You have to minimise risk and take precautions. It's part of our training," said the doctor.

Neither doctor asked why I wanted to abort, whether I had informed my partner or whether he had agreed.

There were several other willing doctors as well, and even those who said they didn't do abortions were able to refer me to a colleague.

In Spanish Town, the regular physician was out Friday afternoon, but the female doctor sitting in for him checked with the receptionist before confirming that abortions were done there. She, however, cautioned that I seek counselling before seeing the doctor.

"You should get counselling before, because although some people think it [abortion] will be easy, there are a lot of psychological stressors associated with it," she said.

In the capital city, a GP advised that I go to an obstetrician/gynaecologist for the procedure.

"It is a risk and is best done by an obstetrician/gynaecologist. Sometimes some women go to a general practitioner and it doesn't work out for them, so it's best to go to an OB-GYN to at least guide you," he said over the phone. "The important thing, though, is that whatever it is you choose to do, you're sure that that's what you want to do, because sometimes women end up with regrets."

In the municipality of Portmore, a doctor who said he didn't perform abortions but could refer me to someone who did, recommended that I do the termination as soon as possible.

"I can recommend you to someone, but you have to come in; we don't do it on the phone," he said.

While elective abortions remain illegal in Jamaica, they continue to be practised, the Medical Council of Jamaica said, based on the law which allows it in the case of threat to the life of a mother or her child. And even if a doctor is found to have performed an abortion in contravention of the law, the Council said it has no sanctions in place to discipline that doctor.

"To date, we've never seen any such complaint about any doctor. we've never had to challenge the law in an inquiry," said council chair Dr Trevor McCartney.

"It's a very, very, very difficult issue to legislate. It's an area that needs to be clarified and that is why there is this debate now," he said.

Dr Frederick Nunes, a social scientist who has done studies on abortion in other Caribbean territories, told the Sunday Observer earlier this year that the abortion rate in Jamaica (number of abortions per 1,000 women age 15-44 per year) lies between 31,251 and a 51,875.

In January this year, a report of the Abortion Policy Review Group recommended that abortions be made legal and that the Government provide trained professionals and registered health care facilities to safely carry out the procedure. The matter is currently before a Joint Select Committee of Parliament where it has been stirring emotional debate.

Two weeks ago, Dr Brendan Bain cautioned the Committee against legalising abortion, arguing that it would give doctors a licence to kill.

"All well-trained doctors know how to kill very elegantly but it is my strong conviction that we should not be licensed to kill," Bain said. He called instead for the spotlight to be turned on members of the profession who knowingly administer harmful drugs to pregnant women to induce abortion.

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