Don't be flippant about abortion
Published:Monday | October 29, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Having read Dr Christopher Tufton's and Glen Tucker's articles - and others - in our daily tabloids and on Twitter, I am yet to see (data notwithstanding) a set of cogent ideas supporting the need for abortion.
For, whether they are body cells or gametes, all cells are ALIVE and should be valued and nourished as such. But further, I remember from biology class that when two gametes (which are themselves special cells) fuse, the result is a new special type of cell, the embryo. That is the beginning process of a new INDIVIDUAL.
But at this stage of the process, which occurs in the fallopian tube, one can hardly call it pregnancy, as this embryo takes about three or four days to move to the lining of the uterus, where it attaches to the uterine wall and starts to grow, eventually becoming the foetus. So, it is while it is inside the fallopian tube that the morning-after pill is relevant.
So a woman who has been raped can immediately have medical treatment that would prevent the foetus from lodging inside the womb.
Abortion occurs after the foetus has been lodged inside the uterus. So for those strongly supporting abortion on the basis of rape, I ask, at what stage of the pregnancy did you suddenly decide to take the young one's life? But let me hasten not to appear too judgemental, as some may have been traumatised by that experience.
The editorial of The Sunday Gleaner of October 28, 2018, posits that "the existing provisions of the Offences Against the Person Act, which make it almost impossible for a woman to terminate a pregnancy under any circumstance, are anachronistic and cruel". What makes the act anachronistic? The passage of time, statistical data, or is it the fact that the articulate opportunists say so?
Abortion is not a moral issue. It is a health issue that should be strictly between the woman, her doctor and psychologist. Abortion should be permissible only on the bases of rape or terminal illnesses. For all the other reasons proffered are either selfish, flippant, or are the symptoms of a broken and untamed social infrastructure.
A'LERROY BROWN