Letter of the Day | Anti-abortion rhetoric is archaic drivel

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Like clockwork, the far-right radicals of the Church have sought to turn another conversation about progressive law reform into something which it is not. They have come, guns blazing, to 'defend the life of the unborn child'.

For them, millions of lives are at stake if the laws were to change so as to allow women to safely access services they are already accessing (with no significant decline in the population as a result), oftentimes in less-than-optimal conditions.

The problem is that the major tenets of their argument ignore the reality of maternal mortality. We do know that women are dying and suffering severe harm trying to have abortions. We do know that the law is not stopping the women. It is only opening them up to harm and exploitation from unregulated medical practices.

Rather than caring about the preservation of lives, they are interested in dictating to women what they can or cannot do with their bodies. Recall that it was not too long ago that these same radicals fought tooth and nail to prevent any real sex education in schools, the very information that would help young girls make safer and better choices, reducing their likelihood of getting pregnant.

SILENT ON ABUSE

While they were hounding schools, they were relatively quiet when we are all up in arms about the abuse at the hands of church leaders that many young girls faced.

Now, they have become vocal again to tell us that women shouldn't be able to safely access termination services, under any condition, even if she has been raped by a pastor almost twice her age. They know full well that in doing so, they are condemning women to unsafe abortion, while condemning young girls to no access to the kind of sex education that would help to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

These groups are not interested in a healthy society or in saving lives. They are interested in preserving the status quo regardless of who that hurts or kills.

GLENROY MURRAY

Adviser, Equality for All Foundation Jamaica

glenroy.am.murray@gmail.com