SHARON HAY-WEBSTER, Member of Parliament for South Central St. Catherine, caused a stir in the House last night when she put the sterilisation of women on the table as one of the options to control unwanted pregnancies.
"We possibly need to look at state control of parenting and maybe we need to look at tubal ligation of mothers who come in with a second or third child and can't take care of them," she said.
Tubal ligation is the cutting or blocking off of the fallopian tubes in the woman as a way of preventing pregnancies.
Mrs. Hay-Webster was speaking in the debate on a resolution calling for the dismissal of Health Minister, John Junor, in the wake of a damning report on the state of children's homes in the island. She said the national budget was under stress and therefore there needed to be some way of preventing persons from having children who end up burdening the state.
Opposition spokesman, Ken Baugh, cautioned against such drastic measures, and suggested that what was needed was better family planning education to deal with the problem of unwanted children.
