Allwood-Anderson

Avia Collinder, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Stopping just short of accusing state interests of hypocrisy, members of the local anti-abortion movement including the Nurses' Association of Jamaica (NAJ), say that energy and money ploughed into lobbying for legal termination would be better spent improving basic reproductive-health services.

"Family-planning services have been cut. People can't get the methods," lamented NAJ president Edith Allwood-Anderson, adding that the association would vigorously oppose any attempt to get Parliament to pass an abortion bill.

Dr Doreen Brady West, chairperson at an April 28 stakeholders meeting at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston, told The Sunday Gleaner: "Jamaica has basic needs now which are unmet in the health field. To leave these and to go and create abortion clinics would be a clear departure from the philosophy of practising the healing art."

The meeting, convened by the Coalition for the Defence of Life to discuss the ongoing policy review on abortion by the Jamaican Government, involved repre-sentatives from the health sector, political sphere, the Church, policy-formulation specialists and an abortion specialist from the United States.

Shortage of gynaecologists

Doctors in attendance at the forum complained of a shortage of gynaecologists at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital, even while the "beds are filling up". However, Douglas McDonald, senior medical officer at Victoria Jubilee, speaking to The Sunday Gleaner subsequently, denied any staff shortages.

Allwood-Anderson, the fiery leader of the nurses' union, argued at the meeting: "Govern-ment has stopped supporting its distribution (of contraceptives) at its previous levels and there is no guarantee of supply. Even education in (nursing) schools has been cut back. We are saying that what Government needs to do is to maximise the existing services in terms of improving them." She said that more lucrative private interests were luring specialists away from the public sector.

Allwood-Anderson noted that nurses whole-heartedly supported the sus-tenance of life.

"An attempt by any government to make abortion widely available will be met by extensive agitation and opposition from us (members of the NAJ)," she declared. "Abortion leads to psychological, self-esteem and medical problems and a change in personality. It will cost you more to treat these women in the long run. There are also others who will never get pregnant again," added Allwood-Anderson.

The call for increased investment into reproductive health comes on the heels of a recent United Nations Population Fund's reminder to developing nations that there was a significant shortfall in spending on programmes to reduce maternal mortality.