In a fervent display of faith and activism, the global Christian movement ‘40 Days for Life’ has set its sights on Jamaica, partnering with Love March Movement and other stakeholders in the hope of safeguarding the lives of the unborn and providing support for women in crisis pregnancy.

“This the first time we’ve ever had a campaign in the Caribbean. In Latin America we’re now in pretty much every single country, I think bar Cuba and El Salvador,” Robert Colquhoun, director of international campaigns at 40 Days for Life, told last Friday’s Jamaica Observer Press Club.

“We bring a freshness to the pro-life movement here with a message and a presentation. We are more mission-orientated, helping existing ministries and movements in what they’re doing, encouraging their work, and getting more volunteers.” Colquhoun said, adding that the campaign is ecumenical.

Since its first campaign in the United States in 2007, the international organisation has spread to more than 1,000 communities in 60 cities across the world. It says that, through its intervention, more than 24,000 unborn lives have been saved, 148 abortion centres closed, and 256 abortion workers have walked off the job.

Colquhoun explained that the organisation encourages Christians to pray and fast to end abortion, has peaceful prayer vigils outside abortion centres for 12 hours a day for 40 days, sending what it perceives to be powerful messages.

Colquhoun, an Englishman, noted that abortions are illegal here in Jamaica. “So here, we don’t have abortion centres in the same way that you have in the United States,” he said.

“In the United Kingdom we have some busy abortion centres, some doing 50 to 100 abortions a day,” he added, then pointed to the task facing Love March Movement, led by Dr Daniel Thomas, to significantly reduce or bring an end to abortions.

“Part of the challenge for Daniel is to contextualise and make the campaign culturally and nationally relevant for Jamaica,” said Colquhoun, who acknowledged that he’s “not an expert on Jamaican culture”.

Abortion has been a controversial issue in Jamaica for decades, fuelling passionate debates, some of which are rooted in religion.

In 2018, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, the Member of Parliament for St Andrew West Rural, made a presentation to the House to decriminalise abortion.

The former star athlete and Olympian had told fellow legislators that they “have a moral obligation to ensure that women can enjoy their personhood without interference”.

“Be it resolved that this Honourable House considers the recommendations of the Abortion Policy Group, which was established to provide guidance to allow women the right to choose; and be it further resolved that the Parliament takes steps to repeal sections 72 and 73 of the Offences Against The Person Act,” Cuthbert-Flynn said in her presentation.

However, it met fierce resistance from Lawyers Christian Fellowship Jamaica and its affiliate, Jamaica Coalition for Healthy Society.

“The matter of abortion is not merely an issue concerning women; it is certainly not a private or individual concern and should not be viewed in the same light as other medical procedures with proven therapeutic benefit,” the group said.

“Instead, abortion and the laws which govern it are a social issue and belong squarely in the public domain. The laws of any State serve to enforce and uphold or to change the prevailing culture. The highest duty of the law is the protection of life. The laws enacted now will impact the lives of citizens for future decades, including those yet to be born.”

Added the group: “The central basis of our position on abortion is the nature of the unborn child. It is a biological fact that at conception there exists a new, unique human being who, if left unharmed, will go through all the physiological stages of intrauterine development that are characteristic of human beings. The foetus is as much a human being as a newborn baby, in the same way that a newborn and an adolescent are human beings at different stages of development.”

Other groups and individuals in Jamaica have argued consistently that the law that criminalises abortion is archaic.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. Six out of 10 (61 per cent) of all unintended pregnancies, and three out of 10 (29 per cent) of all pregnancies end in induced abortion.

“When carried out using a method recommended by WHO appropriate to the pregnancy duration, and by someone with the necessary skills, abortion is a safe health-care intervention,” WHO states on its website. “However, when people with unintended pregnancies face barriers to attaining safe, timely, affordable, geographically reachable, respectful, and non-discriminatory abortion, they often resort to unsafe abortion.”

Last Friday, Colquhoun said that in countries where abortions are illegal it’s harder to reach people than in countries where it is legal.

He said that by praying in areas where abortions take place his group is touching the issue directly.

“Rather than thinking somebody else is gonna solve that problem, you’re personally participating spiritually and physically. So you can literally save a life where you live, and that’s a really different ministry and approach,” he said, adding that in that environment, even if a baby is aborted, that child would have died with a bit of love and prayer.

“We don’t know how God can use those prayers. It might be that a woman goes through with an abortion, and the next time that she goes, she remembers the people who are praying there. We’re the last sign of hope for anyone who is considering an abortion, but the first sign of mercy for anyone who has had an abortion,” he said.

Love March Movement, in partnership with 40 Days for Life, started hosting prayer vigils in Jamaica on February 14 at a strategic location in St Andrew where it is believed abortions are conducted.

The campaign will run until March 24.

Dr Thomas told the Observer Press Club that within the first 23 days of the campaign they helped six women who had the intention of having an abortion through prayer and support. The women, he said, were in their mid-20s to early 30s. Two were at the end of their first trimester and entering their second.

“We are not here to harass people. We’re here to be Christ-like. We’re not gonna block anybody’s way or touch anybody or be aggressive,” Dr Thomas said, adding that each volunteer signs a document before they can be a part of the campaign, pledging to approach the mission in peace.

“They are persons who will be loving and caring, and not cold and harsh at all, providing systems of support for women in crisis pregnancies, and that is our goal right now,” he said.

“We have women that we’re coming alongside, we’re helping them to find jobs, we’re helping them if they need food, and we’re raising funds. We’re not just saying ‘Don’t abort the baby’. We’re saying ‘We will come alongside you, we will find the means in order to help you’,” he stressed.

Dr Thomas shared that the hope is to have a prayer vigil at least once a year across different sections of Jamaica, training volunteers in sidewalk counselling.

He said that as the organisation continues its mission, its overall aim is to integrate the work being done in other pro-life ministries across the island, including churches, medical facilities, and corporate Jamaica, to provide holistic support for women who choose not to go through with an abortion.

“We can’t just say we believe abortion is bad. At some point we have to do something about it, and we’re prepared to put something in place to address the issue in this country and to save lives,” said Dr Thomas.

“There needs to be some intervention in this issue. A lot of women just feel like there is no hope, and all they need to hear is, ‘We will help you’ and a lot of them will change their minds. So, it’s just to create a system of support that won’t just be in Kingston, but the vision is for it to span the whole country,” he said.

Dr Thomas further noted that the organisation also provides support for women who have had an abortion.

“We’re saying to women, ‘If you have had an abortion and you realise that you are suffering from some of the psychiatric impacts of that decision we want you to be able to get some care as well’, and so that’s what we’re bringing,” he explained.

Asked what drew the campaign to Jamaica, Colquhoun said, “The way we work is, if somebody puts up their hand and says ‘I want to help, I want to do something’, that’s how we get started.”

That signal, he said, was sent by Dr Thomas and his team at Love March Movement.

“Basically our campaign rises and falls with the quality of the local leaders… Daniel’s got the zeal, he’s got the intensity, the passion,” Colquhoun said.