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Daniel Thomas | The pathetic pro-abortion push

Published:Thursday | January 21, 2021 | 12:14 AM
Daniel Thomas
Daniel Thomas
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This is in response to The Gleaner’s editorial, titled ‘Next move on abortion trail’, which seeks to jump-start the process to green lighting the shedding of the innocent blood of countless future Jamaicans in 2021.

The editorial bases its pro-death argument on the illogical premise that a woman having control of her body is the same as her killing a human being inside her body. This position upholds the laughable thinking that women from time to time develop 20 fingers and 20 toes, two hearts and two brains – complete with two different types of DNA. The writer seems to believe that the baby isn’t actually a separate human being growing inside her, but that they are both the woman herself.

In reality, studies show that women, post-coitus, have the ability to become pregnant; a process by which a child is formed in the womb of the woman. This child is instantly complete with their own genetic identity – around day 16, their own heartbeat; by week three, their own fingerprint. Abortion stops a beating heart and shreds an innocent human being to bits.

NATIONAL CONSEQUENCES

In July 2020, the editor’s own enterprise reported that Easton Williams, director of social policy planning and research at the Planning Institute of Jamaica, stated the need for women to have more children in order to protect our nation’s growth, lest we become an ageing and depleting population, like Canada or Japan. It is therefore in the nation’s long-term interest to uphold our pro-life laws[ we need more, not less children. It would be good to learn from the mistakes of places like New York City where, according to The Wall Street Journal (2018), more black babies are aborted than born alive.

TRANSPARENCY IS KEY

In an authoritarian vein, the editorial pushed MP Cuthbert Flynn to advance the issue to a conscience vote. It conveniently omits that the vast majority of Jamaicans, according to the RJR Gleaner/Don Anderson poll in 2019, a whopping 75 per cent of Jamaicans are against the legalisation of abortion. In a democratic nation, should this clear indication of the preference of the people be discarded and replaced by an anonymous parliamentary vote? Not at all. We must understand the intricacies of the scenario in which we find ourselves. The issue of abortion carries with itself enduring international pressure, endless blood money, effervescent deceptions, and a history of easily discernible underhandedness. Such vices, one can imagine, flourish most under the darkness of anonymity. The people must decide via referendum!

ABORTION CONTORTION

Part of the wanton deception that accompanies abortion globally is that of the distortion of figures related to same. Take, for example, the assertion made in the editorial, “there are more than 20,000 abortions in Jamaica … equivalent to over 60 per cent of the annual average live births, which, in 2019, was 34,632”. Forgive my healthy scepticism of this figure, which suggests that for every three babies born, two are aborted. Because of the prevalence of lies, at this point, no statistic shared by pro-abort activists should be believed without proper investigation. The Jamaica Reproductive Health Survey, published by STATIN and the National Family Planning Board in 2005, determined this figure of more than 20,000, parroted from the WHO, was incorrect. The final report, published by the National Family Planning Board, under Section 3.4 highlighted that “the rate of abortion in Jamaica is low”. Dr Charles Royes, in presenting to Parliament in 2019, noted that this figure could be as low as 6,000 per year; also noting that 95 per cent of these abortions were related to inconvenience. The graphic case of Dr Kermit Gosnell, who conducted late-term abortions in Philadelphia, demonstrates that even when abortion is legal, illegal abortions still take place. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2011, having been found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder of infants, whose spinal cords he snapped post-delivery; and manslaughter for the death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, who died following an abortion.

CHOICE DISMEMBERMENT

Most shocking of all is the blatant and open admission that The Gleaner would support the abortion of intrauterine children up to 22 weeks. This is commonly accomplished through dilatation and evacuation, which culminates in the dismemberment of the little one, piece by piece. By this time, the baby is some 0.5kg and around 28cm, crown to rump. He or she would have developed the ability to feel pain, the sense of hearing, and even his or her grip. On October 23, 2019, The BBC piece, titled ‘Babies born at 22 weeks can now survive’, highlighted that significant improvements in neonatal care have increased their chances of survival.

The editorial is therefore unscientific, inhumane, unpatriotic and undemocratic in its proposals. Well-thinking Jamaicans, and, indeed, Minister Cuthbert Flynn herself, should treat these proposals , how the editor wishes our future citizens to be treated. Rip these proposals from limb to limb and flush them down the memory hole; and leave our precious little ones alone.

ADVANCING SOLUTIONS

It is my considered opinion that we as a nation, having decided to protect the most vulnerable among us (the unborn), should invest more heavily in educating the population about the value and sanctity of sex, the wonders of the developing fetus, and the bare-faced truths regarding the potential adverse effects of abortion on the mental and physical state of the woman and family affected by abortion. We need more counselling centres that can provide support and encouragement for pregnant women. I lift my hat to Christina Milford and the work she is doing at the Pregnancy Resource Centre. We need one in each parish in Jamaica. We must continue to enhance our adoption services. We ought not to live at an eternal crossroads; let us orient our government resources, our policies and messaging to support, not kill, the most vulnerable among us, our unborn children.

Dr Daniel Thomas is president of the Love March Movement.