Younis

Businessman Sameer Younis has added his voice to the call for abortion to be legalised.

Younis, the chairman of the Civic Affairs Committee of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC), argued recently that making abortion legal would contain the spiralling birth rate in the country.

"It is now time to look very seriously at containing the birth rate in this country and to give serious consideration not only to the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, but also to look at being able to make abortion legally available," he said while speaking at the committee's launch of the Family Life and Family Values mass media campaign at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston last Tuesday.

Younis spoke to the harsh, inhumane and unsanitary conditions many women undergo through botched abortion procedures.

"We cannot bury our heads in the sand, for abortion is taking place illegally, and it benefits no one, particularly the mother," he argued.

Alarming figures

Younis said the most recent statistics he has seen from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica indicated that 66 per cent of children born in the country are labelled unwanted while 71 per cent were born to women between the ages of 15 and 24 and were unplanned. Eighty five per cent were born out of wedlock.

These figures, Younis said, are alarming. He proposed that the Ministry of Health revive the "two is better than too many" campaign, which was aimed at fostering proper family planning habits.

This campaign, he said, would help to enhance the Family Life and Family Values campaign in reinforcing the message of planned and responsible parenthood.

Reason for campaign

The campaign is an initiative to create mass media awareness among the public, particularly the youths about the importance of family values and morals.

Younis has spearheaded several other attitudinal-change campaigns, including the "Clean as a Whistle campaign", "the People against Accidents campaign" and "Campaign HELP".