Proposed abortion laws could undermine parental authority
published:
Monday | July 28, 2008
Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter
Concerns have been raised that proposed legislation crafted from the recommendations of the abortion policy advisory review group could usurp the Child Care and Protection Act, if it gets the stamp of approval from Parliament.
Dr Doreen Brady-West who is based at the department of pathology at the University of the West Indies, says the proposal, which states that competent minors under the age of 16 should be allowed to have abortions without the knowledge of their parents, would undermine parental authority. Under Section 5 of the bill, entitled the Termination of Pregnancy Act 2007, it is proposed that a minor be allowed to have an abortion without parental consent.
Brady-West, who staunchly opposes abortion, told The Gleaner the reference was detrimental on several counts.
"It contradicts the Child Care and Protection Act at a legal level, it undermines most seriously parental authority and makes a mockery of the fact that the minor cannot consent to sexual intercourse and then consent to an abortion," she said.
Contradictory positions
Women's Advocate and attorney-at-law Margaret Macauley stressed that the proposed change to the legislation was not one that the advisory committee created, but a policy decision approved by Cabinet almost two years before the review body was formed.
Macauley said the advisory group, which she was a member of in 2007, followed the directive of Cabinet, which referenced the Gilick case in England in 1985, whereby the House of Lords ruled that a minor could secure medical services and advice without the consent of a parent or guardian.
Macauley conceded that the policy proposed in the bill presented contradictory positions.
"This policy acknowledges the fact that some young persons do have sex before the age of consent and, in order to protect them, that is why they gave the common-law position on this case," she said. "So, in order to protect these young children, they agreed that they could get use of protective contraceptives and go to doctors and clinics."
Health-care providers were given the directive by the Ministry of Health earlier this year to give minors non-surgical methods of contraceptive without parental consent. However the latter part of the proposed legislation has yet to be approved.
tendai.franklyn-brown@gleanerjm.com
Section 5 of the proposed bill, entitled the Termination of Pregnancy Act 2007:
"In the treatment of a mentally competent minor of a pregnancy, while the authorised medical practitioner may encourage the minor to inform her parents or guardian, shall not be required to obtain the consent of her parents or guardian or to notify them."
Post your submission
A joint select committee of Parliament is inviting written submissions on the final report of the Jamaican Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group. Among the foci of the recommendations are the repealing of sections of the Offences against the Persons Act; medical termination of pregnancy;the methods of abortion and mandatory training of persons who conduct abortions. Get full details from Gordon House staff and let your opinion count.
Post your submission to Clerk to the Houses, House of Parliament, 81 Duke Street, Kingston.
Closing date for submissions is Friday 29th August 2008.
