No abortion advice
Published:Monday | May 21, 2018 | 12:00 AMArthur Hall/Associate Editor
Almost seven in every 10 Jamaicans would not recommend an abortion to a friend who is faced with an unwanted pregnancy.
Only one in seven persons (14 per cent) would recommend the termination of the pregnancy, while 17 per cent would give their advice based on the situation that the woman faced or who caused the pregnancy.
In a recently conducted all-island poll by Johnson Survey Research Limited, the vast majority of respondents said that they would not recommend an abortion because it was wrong and illegal, because it is a sin, or because they did not believe that it was their role to provide any such advice.
The survey was conducted between April 27 and 29 islandwide, with 1,000 Jamaicans
between the ages of 15 and 49, and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 per cent.
The majority of the respondents (65 per cent) were Jamaicans between the ages of 15 and 34, with 46 per cent ending their schooling at the secondary level. About 13 per cent of respondents were college graduates, 11 per cent had completed university, while two per cent had completed graduate, law or medical school.
Just over 80 per cent of the respondents said that they considered themselves religious, with 49 per cent attending church between once each week and once each month.
Almost half of the respondents were employed full time, five per cent part time, 19 per cent were self-employed, and 10 per cent unemployed.
The occupation of those employed ranged from tradesman to teacher; manager to office worker; with teacher, entertainer, vendor and nurse among the many other areas included.
Forty-four per cent of the respondents said that they had no children, and the others averaged approximately two children each.
More than one-third of the respondents said that they lived in urban areas, 26 per cent indicated inner-city communities, 22 per cent were from rural towns, and 19 per cent from farming communities.