Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

"We are not here to legislate morality and tell people what to do. We are trying to keep women alive."

At least one university professor believes the lives of many Jamaican women are at risk if the practice of abortion remains illegal.

Affette McCaw-Binns, professor of reproductive health epidemi-ology at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, said botched abortions are continuing to take the lives of several Jamaican women each year. She argues that this can be reversed if the practice is legalised and carried out under strict guidelines where women are able to have abortions in a safe environment by trained professionals.

The UWI professor's suggestion comes just days after the Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group tabled its report in Parliament last Thursday.

Botched abortions

According to McCaw-Binns, about five women die each year from botched abortions. However, she said hundreds of women are admitted to hospital annually for complications associated with poorly done terminations.

The Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group, in its presentation to Parliament in January, revealed that at one premier hospital in Jamaica, in a period of just six months, there were 641 patients admitted with abortion complications.

McCaw-Binns also pointed out that abortion was the fifth leading cause of maternal death for women over 40 years, and the second-highest cause of maternal death among adolescents.

She said the reality is that whether the practice is legal or not, women would continue to have abortions.

Additionally, contrary to the common notion that only lower-class women were having illegal terminations, she said the 'Reproductive Health Survey 2002' showed that one in 20 middle-class women confessed to ending a pregnancy. This compared to one in 50 working-class woman who admitted to having had an abortion procedure done.

"It is happening, but it is happening in a very haphazard way and it is happening in ways that are dangerous to women's lives," she said.

"What we want is to create an environment where abortion is not needed, but we also have to have an environment that when it is wanted, it can be delivered safely," added the UWI professor.

Establish rules

She said if it is made legal, the Government could then establish rules to determine where and when the procedure can be done, and under what circumstances.

McCaw-Binns said medical providers who are registered to do abortions would be licensed and monitored. In addition, regional public facilities, which could provide procedures safely to persons meeting the criteria, would be created.

She further argued that international statistics showed that once abortion is legalised and clinics are operated within proper guidelines, the mortality rate from abortion goes down.