The following letter to the editor is a reaction to an article, 'Abortion could save lives', published in The Gleaner, dated July 14.

The very heading of the article is misleading and I am surprised that someone who has taken the Hippocratic Oath to save lives could be so devious. To Dr Affette McCaw-Binns professor of reproductive health epidemiology at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, I ask: what is your real agenda? Abortion does NOT save lives!

Abortion is the taking of innocent, helpless human lives. This article is geared to the taking of human lives by a medical doctor. You, dear lady, are able to make the statements in this article because your mother did not have an abortion when you were conceived. Please do not deny this to future generations of persons, who are being given lives by God himself. The statements in this article are at the very least disingenuous. In fact, they are deliberately misleading.

Backstreet abortions

It is a proven fact that, in countries where abortions have been legalised, the number of abortions jump by at least 10 times. The figure in the United States today, one of the few places that accurate records on abortions are now kept, is up to 4,000 innocent lives being taken daily by "legalised abortions". Backstreet abortions have risen by the same rate also. It is difficult to accept that backstreet abortions will stop in Jamaica if abortion is legalised.

Jamaica thrives on illegal activities. Therefore, it is more likely to speculate that if abortion is legalised, many more abortions will take place and many untrained and/or semi-trained persons will be getting into the act. Therefore, backstreet abortions and maternal deaths will escalate. The hospital services will be strained to look after botched abortions. So legalising abortions will not improve the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR).

Other gynaecologists tell us that there are actually very few women who die each year from complications due to botched abortions. Medical science in recent years has actually improved Jamaica's MMR.

Abuse

In about 2003 an act called the Child Care and Protection Act was passed to try and prosecute those who are abusing or would abuse our children. Are our unborn children not to be protected by this act also?

There is a powerful drive on to legalise abortion in Jamaica. Such a drive is usually backed by the International Planned Parenthood Federation and agencies like United Nations Fund for Population Activities and United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organisation. They are very heavily funded by governments of many countries, as well as philanthropic non-government organisations. Their stated objective is to have legalised abortions in every country of the world.

(See http://www.ippf.org/en/). They call it "safe abortions".

This again is a misnomer - safe for whom? Anyway you look at the term abortion, it is the taking of a human life. How can an abortion be safe? It is at least an invasion of the mother's body, interfering with a natural function, and it means death to a person. In Jamaica, we already live in a culture of death. Are we to add the taking of unborn humans to our many other sins before God? As a society, this has got to be a backward step.

There is another term being used by the powers behind the legalised abortion thrust. It is called reproductive health. The idea is that the overall reproductive health of a country is improved by killing unborn children by abortion. We should be ashamed of ourselves to allow these charlatans to use innocent-sounding terms to lull us into a sense of misunderstanding. Or to use a Jamaican term, "to fool us up". I exhort every well-thinking Jamaican to make a concerted effort to stop the monster of legalised abortion from visiting our shores.

Psychologists and counsellors report that abortions hurt women very deeply for many years. Men who participate also report deep continued guilt and shame. Should doctors and psychiatrists not be telling persons about the severe difficulties and depressions caused for many years when a woman has an abortion? We hear nothing about this tragic aftermath.

John Mais

jrmais@gmail.com