Jamaica – No referendum on abortion

WE-Change
Jamaica
Tuesday | February 9, 2021

We have been
here before. We were here in 1975 when Health Minister Kenneth McNeill, after
his recognition of the high mortality rate of Jamaican mothers and the increase
in complications as a result of unsafe abortion practices, placed the need for
amendments to the 1865 Act to allow for abortions in special circumstances
(cases on incest, statutory rape, and carnal abuse).

We were here in 2007, when Minister Horace Dalley commissioned the Abortion
Policy Review Group to engage research about the landscape of abortion in
Jamaica and they presented a document with recommendations on a potential way
forward. We were here in 2018 and 2019, when MP Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn put forth
a motion to repeal the sections of the Offences Against the Person Act that
makes abortions illegal and replace it with civil law, Termination of Pregnancy
Act.

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/letters/20210209/letter-day-no-referendum-abortion

Jamaica – Millions for illegal abortions

Millions for illegal abortions - Taxpayers fork out US$1.4 million annually for thousands of abortion complications; poorest families suffer most, CAPRI study finds

Sunday | January 31, 2021
Corey Robinson - Senior Staff Reporter, Jamaica Gleaner

Some 22,000 pregnancies are aborted annually in Jamaica, and this is only a
rough estimate from research done by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute
(CAPRI), which believes that the figures for the clandestine, criminal acts
could be more.

The data further revealed that Jamaican taxpayers fork out approximately US$1.4
million each year to fund the country’s healthcare system’s struggle with
complications caused from unsafe abortions islandwide.

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20210131/millions-illegal-abortions-taxpayers-fork-out-us14-million-annually

Let’s Do The Right Thing Now About Abortion

Jaevion Nelson
Published: Wednesday | January 20, 2021

The men of the cloth and their surrogates, including those in the Love March Movement (who betray everything their name suggests), have awkwardly awakened from their deep slumber.

It’s funny when you think how easily topics like buggery, gambling and abortion jolt them into ‘action’.

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20210120/jaevion-nelson-lets-do-right-thing-now-about-abortion

20.01.2021

Jamaica Offences Against the Person Act

Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn

Next Move On Abortion Trail

Published: Monday | January 11, 2021

When members of parliament (MPs) move to the front benches – as Juliet Cuthbert Flynn has, to become a member of the executive – they are expected, personal views notwithstanding, to toe the line of the party or government.

As of now, on this matter, Mrs Cuthbert Flynn is under no such constraint. For the Holness administration has not made a clear statement on its position on abortion. Neither, 10 months later, has it said how it intends to proceed on the recommendation by Parliament’s Human Resources and Social Development Committee that it holds a conscience vote on the matter.

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20210111/editorial-next-move-abortion-trail

11.01.2021

Editorial

Featured

abortion law reform

Human Resources and Social Development Committee

Jamaica Offences Against the Person Act

Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn

Jamaica – House committee recommends conscience vote on abortion

House committee recommends conscience vote on abortion

BY BALFORD HENRY, Senior staff reporter
Saturday, March 28, 2020

THE House of Representatives' Human Resources and Social Development Select Committee has recommended that Members of Parliament make a “conscience” vote to determine whether or not abortion should be legalised in Jamaica.

The recommendation was obviously the likeliest response from the 11-member committee, chaired by Opposition MP and Roman Catholic Deacon Ronald Thwaites, after listening to the divisive views of more than 70 local and overseas institutions, individuals and emotional experts for a little over two years.

Continued: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/house-committee-recommends-conscience-vote-on-abortion_190734?profile=1373

Jamaica – Abortion: whose decision?

Abortion: whose decision?

Yvonne McCalla Sobers
Published: Sunday August 11, 2019

Some church persons are using biblical teachings in an attempt to coerce the State into continuing to treat a woman as a criminal if she chooses to have an abortion. Scare tactics, backed up by horrific footage, have been used to equate abortion with murder.

These advocates have every right to influence the moral choices of their church members in particular, and the society in general. However, laws in a secular state need to apply equally to non-believers and believers (such as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Revivalists, and Rastafarians).

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/focus/20190811/yvonne-mccalla-sobers-abortion-whose-decision

11.08.2019

Featured

Opinion

1864 Offences Against the Person Act

2019 Termination of Pregnancy Act

abortion law reform

Dr Affette McCaw-Binns

Guttmacher Institute

Jamaica Offences Against the Person Act

Yvonne McCalla Sobers

Trinidad & Tobago – Decriminalising abortion

Decriminalising abortion

Dr. Gabrielle Jamela Hosein
Diary of a Mothering Worker
Entry 330
Apr 24, 2019

THERE ARE women in every neighbourhood in TT who have terminated a pregnancy at least once. From here, our support to current efforts to decriminalise abortion in Jamaica should be clear.

In TT, women can risk jail and pay for a private medical procedure. If they cannot pay, or because poverty, age, lack of information and partner violence prevented them from being supported enough in this life decision, they could end up in hospital with various harms caused from unsafe options, as more than 2,000 women do here every year.

Continued: https://newsday.co.tt/2019/04/24/decriminalising-abortion/

Jamaica – Carolyn Cooper | Women dying for abortion rights

Carolyn Cooper | Women dying for abortion rights

Published: Sunday | March 10, 2019

The facts are bloodcurdling. The Partnership for Women’s Health and Well-being has issued a grave reminder that we simply cannot ignore.

“The practice of unsafe abortions and the consequences of abortions performed by untrained, non-specialist physicians can result in a number of complications for women, including: severe infections, gangrene in the uterus, hemorrhaging, tearing of the cervix, uterine perforation, laceration of the vaginal wall and untimely death.”

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20190310/carolyn-cooper-women-dying-abortion-rights

Devout Jamaica debates green light for abortion after rape, incest

Devout Jamaica debates green light for abortion after rape, incest

by Kate Chappell | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 25 February 2019

KINGSTON, Feb 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Anna-Kay was 21 the first time she got pregnant, in her second year of university, and worried of the shame that would follow if she told her parents.

So Anna-Kay did what about 22,000 women in Jamaica do every year, according to government data, and broke the law. She sold her cell phone to get JM$20,000 (US$150) to pay for an abortion.

Continued: http://news.trust.org//item/20190225005006-ygjoo/

Jamaica – ONLINE POLL RESULTS: 51% says no to legalising abortion

ONLINE POLL RESULTS: 51% says no to legalising abortion

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Of the 203 respondents to a recent OBSERVER ONLINE poll, 51 per cent said no to the Jamaican Government legalising abortion.

Government Member of Parliament for West Rural St Andrew, Juliet Cuthbert Flynn, on October 9, opened a debate in the House of Representatives on her motion seeking to have abortion made legal in the island.

Continued: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/ONLINE_POLL_RESULTS:_51_says_no_to_legalising_abortion?profile=1228

27.11.2018