Blame law, not backyard abortionist

THE EDITOR: Taxes are being employed in the conduct of an inquest into the death four years ago of a young woman named Maria. The backyard abortionist who allegedly tried to help the desperate young woman end an unwanted pregnancy is being held responsible for her death. But dragging the backyard provider into court does nothing to prevent other women from seeking similar “disservice.” Maria’s family does not want the backyard provider to be punished. What they want instead is for abortion to be made legal so that no other family would have to bury their daughter.

If abortion were legal Maria would have had access to a safe abortion in a public health hospital. Instead the criminal law drove her into the backyard. It is the government’s refusal to make abortion legal that is responsible for Maria’s death. It is the government’s criminal law that caused Maria to die. It is the criminal law that makes safe medical care inaccessible and so creates the need for poor women to risk their lives. It is the criminal law that makes it perfectly legal for doctors to routinely treat poor women with complications of unsafe abortions but not to help them avoid that misery in the first place.

It is the criminal law that creates a two-tiered system in which women with enough money enjoy the care of private medical practitioners, while others, too poor to pay, risk their lives with backyard providers. The crime resides in the silence of those among us who are powerful enough to end this gross social injustice but who are too morally weak to speak out. “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” said Edmond Burke. The crime here is the state’s abandonment of its social responsibility; its treating of a widespread social problem as an individual crime. The crime is collective, not individual. The backyard provider should not be in court. Instead Parliament and the Ministry of Legal Affairs should be working to achieve a law that respects the reproductive health and the lives of all women.

The issue is unwanted pregnancy. The government ignores the reality that two in every three women will have at least one induced abortion by age 44. The government ignores the reality that four thousand women end up in public hospitals every year because of complications arising from unsafe abortions. The government ignores data showing that treating these women costs some one million dollars a month. Why is the government ignoring this major public health issue? Why the denial? What will it take for the government to accept its responsibility for leadership in this vital public health matter? It is time for the government to replace the criminal abortion law with a civil law of abortion.

TISCHA NICHOLAS
Port-of-Spain