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 – Editorial | Whither abortion reform?

Editorial | Whither abortion reform?

Jamaica Gleaner
Monday | March 23, 2020

IT IS not clear whether Parliament’s Human Resources and Social Development Committee, which hasn’t had a sitting in recent months, has concluded its hearings on reforming the abortion law and, if it has, what it has recommended to legislators. Its chairman, Ronald Thwaites, will shed light on the matter, as well as informing the public how the committee intends to proceed.

Perchance they are not yet done deliberating, it is this newspaper’s hope that the committee will be inspired by last week’s developments on the matter in New Zealand, which finds its way in their report, and embraced by Jamaica’s legislators.

Continued: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20200323/editorial-whither-abortion-reform

23.03.2020

Human Resources and Social Development Committee

JAMAICA – Decriminalising abortion in Jamaica: Christians say ‘Yes’

JAMAICA – Decriminalising abortion in Jamaica: Christians say ‘Yes’

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
April 26, 2019
by Joan French and Statement of Committed Christians

In mid-2018, following the death of a constituent from a botched abortion, Member of Parliament Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn made her protest against the existing laws regarding abortion public via the media. She presented a Motion to the Parliament proposing the decriminalisation of abortion and its replacement by a civil law setting out the conditions under which women would be able to access legal and safe termination of pregnancies. Under Jamaican Statutory law a woman can be sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to terminate a pregnancy, and accomplices or facilitators up to three years. While it is arguable that the Common Law accepts abortion ‘if the life of the mother is in danger’, some doctors have been challenged by the State when they have performed abortions according to their interpretation of that provision.

The result of this situation is that women who choose abortion often have them performed in unsafe conditions, risking their lives. The World Health Organization estimates that 22,000 abortions are performed in Jamaica each year. (WHO, Unsafe Abortions 2004). Many of those who survive suffer serious complications such as severe infections, gangrene in the uterus, haemorrhaging, tearing of the cervix, uterine perforation, laceration of the vaginal wall. The situation disproportionately affects women who are poor and young, since those who have money can find qualified doctors who will perform their abortions for a considerable fee.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/jamaica-decriminalising-abortion-in-jamaica-christians-say-yes/