SUNDAY 3RD JULY, 2016 – UWI TODAY
5
SALISES FORUM ON ABORTION
Agree to Disagree
B Y J E A N E T T E A W A I
The Sir Arthur Lewis Institute
of Social and Economic
Studies (SALISES) presented a forum in early May on the
highly contested topic: Abortion: her body, her choice?
It is an issue brought to the forefront again thanks to a
report of a minor being arrested for undergoing an abortion
in Central Trinidad, and in the face of the Zika virus and its
possible link to microcephaly.
Panelists were called to answer questions on this
divisive topic such as, should abortion be made available
on demand? Under what circumstances, if any, should it
be allowed and others posed by the packed audience at the
UWI St. Augustine, Noor Hassanali Auditorium.
The forum, chaired by Professor Patrick Watson,
Director of SALISES began with Dr. Fuad Khan, former
Minister of Health of Trinidad and Tobago lamenting
the archaic nature of existing laws concerning abortion
in Trinidad and Tobago, such as the Offences Against the
Persons Act which criminalises persons who assist in the
termination of a pregnancy: “Persons can get four years in
prison...whether that’s a doctor or a pharmacist.” He stressed
the need for other archaic laws to be revisited such as 1938’s
Rex vs. Bourne and 1973’s Roe vs. Wade.
Dr. Jacqueline Sharpe, Advisory Director of the Family
Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago, emphasized
the need for more information and more restrictive laws to
avoid unsafe abortions. She said Trinidad is behind in its
abortion laws compared with the rest of the region, such as
Guyana, where abortion is available by request as a result
of the Montevideo Consensus in 2013: “women’s access to
safe abortion must be protected using a human right and a
public health approach.”
Also, she said, Barbados allows abortions in the
following instances: to save the life of a woman; her physical
and/or mental welfare; rape and incest; foetal abnormality.
The need to scale up family planning services was also
hydrocephaly caused by the Zika virus can be used as a
reason for abortion is rooted in a need for perfectionism
that is absolutely inhumane and that “life is not a problem
to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived.”
Dr. Merle Hodge, former Senior Lecturer of Language
and Literature at The UWI St. Augustine and author
and activist, noted that although she and Father Harvey
share opposing views on this issue, they usually agree on
everything else. Additionally, she stated that she is not out
to change your personal opinion... if your values contradict,
you will not have an abortion. This set the stage for the
question and answer segment that was longer than all the
speakers’ presentations combined. A continuous queue of
impassioned persons ranging from journalists, senators,
doctors and lawyers, lined up to weigh in; so much so that
Dr. Hodge commented, “Talking about abortion often turns
into a cross-purpose argument: people end up sliding past
each other. Hot air is wasted and it won’t change the price
of barley.”
Abortion was held to task from personal narratives
about how costly it is, to where do men’s rights come into
play in the abortion argument: don’t they deserve to have a
say? – to philosophical quandaries like where does life begin?
One person even questioned Father Harvey’s selection and
how he came to represent the entire Christian community.
The panel did their best to address questions, but there
were no easy answers. Dr. Sharpe reminded the audience
that 22 million unsafe abortions happen every year with
47,000 deaths globally and that is not going to stop any
time soon.
The Zika virus brought abortion back on the discussion
table, but it’s a conversation that has been around for
centuries and will not go away any time soon. In the interim,
it may be best that we agree to disagree, but the discussion
must continue.
stressed, such as emergency contraception within 48 hours
for all rape victims who are of a reproductive age, and post-
abortion counselling.
Father Clyde Harvey, Vicar of Clergy, Archdiocese
of Port of Spain noted at the start of his presentation
that nowhere in abortion rules is the welfare of the child
mentioned or referenced. He said that the idea that
Jeanette G. Awai is a freelance writer Marketing and Communications Assistant at the UWI Marketing and Communications Office
