Glenda Simms

It is rather curious that there are those within our Parliament who are prepared to welcome foreigners to help them to formulate the legislation to deal with the complex issue of a womans right to access safe abortions as an aspect of her reproductive health and rights.

The self-defined intelligentsia of our country has been insisting that they have the wherewithal to guide and plan for those of us who come from humble beginnings and who did not trod the corridors of the right academies. In this ideological cass cass among the chattering class, the masses are led to believe that the Jamaican society has the ability to find intelligent, balanced and well-thinking men and women who can help us to set our sights on a better tomorrow.

For this reason, every Jamaican parent who invests in the education and development of their children know that this is their contribution to the social capital that is crucial to every developing society. They also know that there are times when even the brightest child needs some help with some of the academic challenges that he or she will encounter.

By the same token, we know that from time to time the Jamaican government and other public and private institutions will engage foreign experts to assist them in specific activities that are being carried out on the local scene. For instance, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, some commercial banks, the national airline, the mining sector and the universities and colleges, to name but a few, have all benefited in differing ways from the involvement of foreigners in their operations.

support for non-jamaicans

Notwithstanding these trends, we must question aloud why, according to a report in the October 13, 2008 edition of The Gleaner, for the first time non-Jamaicans are being supported by some of our elected members to influence legislation in a direct manner.

Every Jamaican must keep a close eye on this issue and insist that if non-Jamaicans are allowed to shape our abortion policy, they should also be allowed to shape every other piece of legislation that is brought before the joint select committees of our Parliament.

In fact, we should all watch these developments and perhaps will not be surprised that in the very near future our elected representatives might decide that in light of all our social, economic and political problems, we should return Jamaica to the British and give up the idea of the independent state.

In fact, from time to time we hear many of the colonial apologists salivating for the good old days when misses and massa could kick black peoples butts and selectively distribute various segments of the colonial largesse to a selected few.

I have no doubt that the majority of our present crop of politicians on both sides of the House would never consider ever again being an overseas territory or a dependency of any modern-day power. So we must question why some of these elected folks are so gung-ho on allowing foreigners to help in crafting the legislation on the most sensitive issue of modern times the womans right to chose to have an abortion under the best medical condition.

Today, we live in a society which produces the headlines that underscore the conditions under which Jamaican women and girls are confronted, on a regular basis, by unwanted pregnancies that will continue to create the need for safe abortions.

For instance, the headline of the October 13, 2008 Gleaner screamed Carnal abuse hush-up. In this article Michelle-Ann Letman, staff reporter, informs the Jamaican public that every sector of the society families, communities and state regulatory bodies have not been reporting the overwhelming incidence of carnal abuse against the Jamaican girl child. The report argues that fear is the single most important element in this outrageous situation.

way of life in some inner-city communities

Also in a recent Sunday edition of the Observer, the population was informed that incest is a way of life in some sectors of the inner city, where the residents are literally prevented from operating outside the prescribed boundaries of their territory.

In the meantime, according to this bizarre human tragedy of fear and repression, we are told that many fathers and some mothers have established sexual relationships with their offspring. In other words, the Jamaican society is now spawning incestuous colonies in the most deprived enclaves of human suffering.

Do we need foreigners to help us to see that our little girls should never be called upon to give birth to their fathers, brothers, grandfathers, stepfathers and uncles children?

Let us think very hard on these issues.

By December 2008, in my capacity as an expert on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), I would have spent three months every year listening to government representatives from every corner of the world expound on the great progress that the women of their society have made since the ratification of the CEDAW.

While we can all applaud the many positive changes in the lives of some women in all societies, we must recognise that there is no society that has demonstrated any best practice on some of the most difficult issues, such as abortion, prostitution and the objectification of the female body. Against this background, one is tempted to ask the question: from which society will the Select Committee of the Jamaican Parliament choose the foreigners with the goods?

Dr Alveda King from the American group, Priests for Life, Silent No More, visited the island last year at the invitation of local anti-abortion groups to speak on the theme, Abortion Hurts Women, at a press conference at the Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew. - FILE

abortion policies

In 2001, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division of the United Nations published Volume 1 of its global review of abortion policies. This volume, arranged alphabetically, featured the policies of 62 countries from Afghanistan to France.

This work demonstrated that abortion policies reflect the theological, political and economic prerogatives of the patriarch. No one country had any best practices. Some, like the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and Denmark, permitted abortion on the seven identified grounds:

To save the life of the woman

To preserve physical health

To preserve mental health

Rape and incest

Foetal impairment

Available on request

Others like El Salvador and Chile said no to abortion on all seven grounds. Interestingly, the Nation State of Barbados allows abortion on all grounds except the seventh.

In short, all available foreigners live in countries that reflect the power and control of the patriarchal institutions. They therefore cannot, and must not, be allowed to tell us what to do on this most passionate and controversial issue.

We must forge a home-grown solution to all the challenges that now confront us. These are the only solutions that are sustainable. The foreigners come and go. They have been doing this since 1492. The majority of us have no choice but to grapple with all the fundamental questions about our human existence in this Jamaica land we love.

Dr Glenda P. Simms is a consultant on gender issues. Feedback maybe sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.