Most women have at least one abortion

Abortion is a common companion of a sex life. Even with modern contraceptives, a period of at least 30 years of sexual activity is likely to result in at least one unplanned pregnancy.

Many women with unplanned pregnancies choose to terminate them regardless of the state of the law or their religious practices. The current law does not stop abortions, it merely drives them underground and makes them unsafe.

But an unsafe abortion is altogether different. Unsafe abortions remain a major cause of maternal mortality and morbidity here. In the recent World Population Monitoring 2002 report, our government has acknowledged that induced abortion is a matter of concern (at p 81). An earlier report claimed that abortions were one second leading cause of maternal mortality (PAHO, Health Conditions in the Americas, 1997 at p 179).

The current restrictive law is demonstrably harmful to poor women. Its consequence is a substantial burden on gynaecological beds and expensive hospital care. A new liberal law could both improve women’s health and save government funds. In reality an abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is several times safer than delivery at term, under comparable medical conditions.

We can no longer deny the problem of unsafe abortion. Nor can you escape the role of our archaic law as the genesis of that problem. Nobody seeks to promote abortion, but to make them safe for the women who will use any means to have an abortion regardless of the law or your judgement of them.

The question then remains: What action is our male-dominated society prepared to take in order to address this scar on our maternal health?

M SUITE

Belle Garden

Tobago