Moving Beyond Rape

EARLIER this month, Sistren Theatre Collective, a grass-roots women’s organisation, presented a dramatic submission in Parliament, addressing the issue of abortion. Using drumming, drama and song, the group highlighted some of the contributing factors that may influence a woman’s choice to terminate a pregnancy.

Among the issues identified was that of conception through rape, raising the question of whether or not a woman who has been a victim of such an offence should be forced to give birth to an infant so conceived.

The stories of real women in this situation are not so easily heard. The combination of shame, fear and guilt that often plague survivors of rape, can be intensified for women who conceive as a result of such brutal acts. For women who choose the termination of pregnancy, they must not only face the trauma of being sexually violated, but may also encounter cultural values that condemn women who have abortions. This leads women to bury their ‘secret’, thereby carrying a triple burden, that of the rape, resulting pregnancy, and the abortion.

For Sheron – a 45-year-old mother of two whose name has been changed to protect her privacy – this burden has been a companion for over 20 years. Sheron’s story began one night when, walking down a poorly lit road on her way home from work, she was raped at gunpoint by a masked man. Sheron, who lives in an inner-city community in Kingston, never saw the face of her attacker, but years later, she remembers the terror she felt during the assault. When it was over, she silently made her way home and bathed, saying nothing to anyone. Amidst feelings of numbness and shame, as well as a fear of people’s reactions if they knew what had happened, Sheron quietly bore her burden.

Soon after the rape, she went to the doctor to test for sexually transmitted diseases, but a few weeks later, when she started to feel ‘funny’, she did a pregnancy test. It was positive. Recalling that moment she recounts, “Lawd God, mi bawl nuh fart”, noting that with the exception of a close friend, no one even knew she was raped, furthermore pregnant. Taken by this turn of events, Sheron decided to terminate the pregnancy.

Having made this decision, Sheron, on the advice of a friend, visited “one likkle quack quack shop”, where the ‘doctor’ gave her some pills to “wash [her] out”. When these did not work, she returned to him, and was told that for $5,000, he would perform an abortion.

As she did not have the money at that time, Sheron borrowed the money from friends, noting that she could not even approach her baby’s father for financial assistance, as he did not know of the rape.

Describing the day of the termination, Sheron recalls the little back room, void of medical equipment, and the ‘doctor’ approaching her with a long metal instrument. Without any anaesthetic or counselling (only a caution of a little pain), the ‘doctor’ proceeded. Afterwards he advised her that there would be some heavy bleeding, and that she should return if she had any complications. Luckily, she did not.

Years later, Sheron recalls how she started smoking after this life-changing series of events, saying that every time she would remember the incident, she would smoke in order to forget. Twenty-five years later, Sheron has never had counselling, stating that she “never knew where to go (mi) did so shame”. The burden of carrying her secret for so long has been amplified by her perceived solitude. The hidden nature of issues such as rape and abortion constructs walls around the survivors, in which their stories are hidden, and they fail to receive much needed counselling.

Stressing the importance of counselling for women in similar situations, she underscored the need for a space in which women could receive help in making informed decisions. Having kept her secret for so long, she says that reading about the Sistren performance in the newspaper felt like a burden was being lifted from her chest, realising that it was a situation affecting many women in Jamaica, and more importantly, that she is not alone.

Sexual violence is a reality in the lives of many women. In many cases, such acts of violence result in unwanted pregnancies. For some women, the choice is made to maintain the pregnancy and to give birth. For others, this represents additional psychological trauma. When we take into consideration the social, cultural and economic factors that shape parenting, we can see that it goes far beyond the actual delivery of the child. In cases such as these, the element of counselling becomes a key component of the recommendations under review by the Joint Select Committee in Parliament.

Acknowledging that not all children are conceived through voluntary sexual intercourse, the recommendations seek to meet the psychological needs of the woman, while helping her to make an informed decision. For women such as Sheron, these recommendations are not abstract words, but real-life proposals that could reshape their lives, offering them hope and a way past their ordeals.

Fact:

In 43 per cent of all countries, rape or incest is interpreted as falling within the mental health grounds for abortion.

In 2008, 1,754 women reported rape to the Jamaica police. An average of five women get raped per day in Jamaica. However, the police estimate that only 40 per cent of the cases of rape are actually reported.