Pro-life vs pro-choice

THE CONTENTIOUS abortion issue will take centre stage over the next few days as organisations on both sides of the issue host major events. Archbishop Edward Gilbert announced plans yesterday for a three-day pro-life conference, scheduled to begin tomorrow in Port-of-Spain. “Love, Life and The Family,” presented by Human Life International, is being held under the aegis of the Antilles Episcopal Conference at Crowne Plaza in Port-of-Spain. RC Bishops from across the region are expected to attend the conference, at which various international pro-life professionals are listed to speak. Archbishop Gilbert said: “The church would never recommend an abortion. It is a difficult thing. We have to try to walk with people considering such action. The church will live with acceptive clauses, but it will never endorse or support it.”

Next Wednesday, the group on the other side of the issue, Aspire (Advocates for Safe Parenthood Improving Reproductive Equity), will host the first in a two-part series on abortion law reform at the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, UWI, St Augustine. The Aspire event will take the form of lunchtime seminars. Within recent times, Aspire has increased its campaign for passage of legislation to legalise abortion in Trinidad and Tobago. In a statement on the issue, the pro-choice group said one of the drawbacks it has faced in promoting its position is “The adversarial language that has been adopted, which amplifies differences and ignores common interests.” “We are so choked on values and principles that we  have no room for factual information.”

The group maintains that its quest is for laws which will allow for safe, easy access to abortions. In explaining the pro-life position to be promoted at tomorrow’s conference, Archbishop Gilbert said: “Laws communicate values. Once something becomes law, it becomes acceptable. There are many instances in the world where religion challenges law and not government.” The Archbishop said the church, government and NGOs must share the blame for social ills affecting “us today.” “We point people in the right direction, but we don’t give them support. We have to walk with them,” he said. Archbishop Gilbert made it clear that the three-day event was not a Catholic conference, but an event for all people who support life over death. Gilbert added: “All over the world there is a culture of death. People must take the lead of the Holy Father and celebrate life. We just can’t preach the truth. We have to walk it.”