I WRITE in response to the article by Jennifer Jones in The Gleaner of October 9. The main distortion in the debate on abortion is the way relatively few use their louder voices (and some sympathetic media), positions of prominence or economic or political clout (especially internationally) to make baseless declarative statements of fact that bias the dialogue in favour of abortion.
Distortion #1: Abortion is not a matter of morality. The truth is, as demonstrated by the recent Don Anderson polls on views on abortion, there is still a significant majority of Jamaicans who are opposed to abortion, on most, if not all, grounds. This reflects the consciences, godly influence, perceptions of morality and the value of life from conception.
When Mary, mother of Jesus, was found to be pregnant (in a context that in our society today, some would advocate an abortion due to an unplanned and inconvenient pregnancy), the scripture described her as being 'with child', not potential child.
Conducted by qualified docs
Distortion #2: Legalising abortion reduces risk of pain, suffering and death of women. This ignores the statistical reality that far more persons have abortions when the law, no matter how carefully framed, allows it. This leads to a higher risk of suffering.
Reference to the 1,173 women per year who suffer from painful complications following unsafe abortions belies the truth that most abortions in Jamaica, illegal as they may be, are known to be conducted by qualified, well-known doctors, in clinics or privately-equipped surgical offices, and not, as implied, under "unsafe, backyard" conditions.
An honest assessment may lead to the conclusion that maternal mortality rate (MMR) statistics are more reasonably linked to countries socio-economic capacity than their abortion laws.
Distortion #3: A foetus' lack of viability outside the mother is justification for abortion. If we begin to go down this road, we begin to question the efficacy of maintaining the life of humans, young or old, who may need external life support of any kind to keep them alive if their viability otherwise would be in doubt.
Biological deception
Distortion #4: The foetus is part of the mother's body and gives her the right to do with it as she desires. This is a biological deception. The mother and her child have separate circulatory systems and do not share the same blood. The placenta, from which the child draws nourishment, is part of the child's system and through which he or she receives nutrition from the womb. The placenta has two parts (maternal and foetal) which facilitate the bringing of the foetal blood extremely close to the maternal blood. No intermingling of blood occurs, just the transfers of nutrients and oxygen one way, and waste, the other way.
If the unborn child inherits the father's blood type and it is antagonistic to the mother's, traumatic conditions leading to the mingling of the baby's and mother's bloods may lead to the baby being rejected by the mother's body as a 'foreign' entity. This would absolutely not happen if the baby were part of the mother's body as distinct from being within her body. The baby is not an appendage or growth. The mother and her unborn child neither share blood nor DNA. The baby is an independent life and should not be treated as a disposable part.
Distortion #5: Failings of the Church and society necessitate change in the law. The slide in morality does not justify the lowering of laws to reflect these retrograde trends. The Church and Government may well need to do more and talk less. Let us not follow the errors of other countries and lower our standards, but rather call our society, and the Church at large, to do more to help those who need tangible support in their time of need!
Let truth prevail!
I am, etc.,
RICHARD DELISSER
richied100@gmail.com
Jacks Hill
St Andrew