President for Doctors for Life, Dr Doreen Brady-West, noted that while Jamaica’s anti-abortion law has not prevented doctors from performing abortions, due to the massive financial benefit, women can ensure that the numbers are significantly reduced.
“It’s a financial thing, and if we can limit the gain, the financial gain from it, people will have very little incentive to go and do it. And so, my bigger issue is that I want to focus on the women who are seeking this and to reduce significantly these numbers, because nobody will do them for free,” said the anti-abortionist.
She said it’s common knowledge that abortions are being done with impunity in doctors’ offices. She recalls going to a public forum where a prominent doctor declared that he had done thousands of abortions and would continue to do more, but he was never penalised.
“I think we can pray for these doctors. We can speak to them. We can confront them. We can publicly go up and say what they’re doing is wrong. The state can take action where there’s a complainant against them. There has to be a complainant or evidence against them. But my bigger emphasis is on the women, because if no woman goes to them for one, they will have no clientele to do it,” she noted.
She said that abortion is a huge money-making industry, especially in the United States of America where it has earned millions of dollars for corporations like Planned Parenthood.
In Jamaica, an estimated 22,000 abortions are done annually. Dr Brady-West has taken note of efforts by various groups and individuals in Jamaica to make abortions legal. It is a move she and others who comprise the Doctors for Life team will continue to push back against.
“As pro-life persons, our concern is that it not be made legal; because when something is legal, it sends a message to the society. It sets a certain ethical paradigm for the society. The law is a teacher. The law teaches us what ought and what ought not to be done. And so, it is important from that point of view for it not to be legal. It should not be legal for innocent life to be taken,” she stressed.
She and other doctors, lawyers, pastors, social workers, and counselors have been to Parliament to argue against the law being changed. She recalls attending Parliament from as far back as 2008 to as recently as maybe 2018, when the matter was being discussed.
“Although we want it to stay illegal, we are concerned that it be unthinkable; that people will be so aware of what an abortion is, what it does, what the possible consequences are on the physical, social, psychological, and spiritual sphere, that it is unthinkable,” she said.
