By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterFACED WITH the rising incidence of death and illness of women having unsafe abortions, the Medical Council of Jamaica said yesterday that it would present a policy statement within six months to the Ministry of Health to facilitate the review of current abortion legislation.
Currently, the law makes abortion illegal except in some cases of medical emergency. Accord-ing to section 72 of the Offences Against the Person Act anyone found guilty of having or facilitating an abortion could be sentenced to life in prison, with or without hard labour.
Dr. Trevor McCartney, the council's chairman, said yesterday that the policy statement seeks to facilitate the amendment of current legislation in order to reduce or prevent maternal deaths and disability linked to unsafe abortions.
"We are seeking legislation for properly conducted abortions with strict criteria for those procedures to be performed... The medical council is really bringing it back to the fore to speed it up... (so that in) a year or two even shorter... we can move forward," Dr. McCartney told a Gleaner Editors' Forum on abortion held yesterday at the company's North Street offices in Kingston.
The medical fraternity wants Jamaican legislators to develop a law modelled off the Barbadian abortion legislation. In Barbados a woman can terminate pregnancies once there is medical proof that the operation will save her life, preserve her physical and mental health in cases of rape and incest, when the unborn child has medical problems or birth defects, and for social and economic reasons.
Dr. McCartney is proposing the following amendments to the Offences of the Person Act:
The right of a medical practitioner to determine the safety of a pregnancy for both mother and child.
Standards to ensure that the procedure is done by a trained practitioner and under sterile and safe conditions, and allow professional to refer women to larger medical facilities, without fear of being penalised, if unforeseen complications arise.
The establishment of clinics or use of areas in existing family planning clinics, to allow women access to safe services and pre- and post-abortion counselling.
"The policy review is due," notes Barry Wint, chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health. "One of the things holding it up is the lack of information and the questions being asked around the evidence are not clear in terms of the Jamaican situation. We have to try and get some more concrete answers to some of those questions."
During the forum, medical practitioners also blamed government for its reluctance to address the issue of abortion out of fear of upsetting the church.
"I believe that one of the things that happened is that successive governments have been afraid to touch the topic. It is dynamite ... they are afraid of the position of the churches," said Dr. Errol Daley, obstetrician and gynaecologist.
