A Gleaner editorial published on January 31, 2021, detailed that Jamaican taxpayers spend an estimated $1.4 million USD on complications due to botched abortions yearly. MP Cuthbert-Flynn has recently lamented on the Caribbean Policy Research Institute’s (CAPRI) Livestream on Feb 4, 2021, that “we need to focus on the reality not the morality of abortion”. Please note the CAPRI study “Coming to Terms with the Social Costs of Unequal Access to Safe Abortions” advocates for:
1) a secret conscience vote of parliament to legalize abortion, 2) minors to access abortions without parental consent, and 3) taxpayer-funded abortion. Let us explore the morality and the realities of legalizing abortion.
Our morality gives us a desire for justice. Legalizing abortion promotes imperialism.
A secret parliamentary conscience vote strips the voting public of any chance of accountability in this matter. In secret, a handful of elected ministers can make a decision that will change the course of a nation, while the masses just “suck it up”. The elites in power make the rules and wield the big stick over the slave population being sold a lie that abortion is good for them. Our “former” colonial masters are doing it, so we must do it too.
Our morality leads us to care about family. Legalizing abortion makes children less safe.
No family is perfect, and yes there are far too many dysfunctional parent-child relationships but telling minors that they can procure abortions without parental consent is a very dangerous precedent to set. It infers that government knows better than parents how to raise their children. This also leaves minors vulnerable to predators who will be emboldened by easy access to “free” abortions, no questions asked – their misdeeds can easily be covered up.
Our morality makes us value our possessions. Legalizing abortion means it will be funded by people diametrically opposed to it.
Nobody likes to be stolen from. Jamaican citizens and residents currently pay extremely high taxes compared to benefits received from government services which are often slow and inefficient. But CAPRI has recommended government-sponsored i.e. taxpayer-funded abortion on demand. The CAPRI study has suggested that 5000 to 22,000 illegal abortions occur in Jamaica yearly and has estimated the cost of managing botched abortions is 1.4million USD.
According to Guttmacher Institute, a “safe and legal” first-trimester abortion costs $650-750 USD, a second-trimester abortion costs $1200-2100 and third-trimester abortions cost upwards of $3000 USD. Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group’s (APRAG) has recommended abortion on demand up to full term and Juliet Cuthbert Flynn has endorsed this recommendation. If these guidelines were foolishly followed at least 5,000-22,000 1st and 2nd-trimester abortions would occur yearly in Jamaica at a cost of 3.25-26.4 million USD! And Jamaican taxpayers would be footing that bill – almost $4 Billion Jamaican dollars…for legal, “safe” abortions.
Instead of using millions of dollars to wipe out our next generation, let us invest that money into urban renewal, social stability projects, more centers for women and girls, and crises to prevent and overcome the various circumstances which invariably lead women to desire abortions.
Dr. Brittanie Clacken
The Love March Movement