Avia Collinder, Gleaner Writer
Dr John Patrick ... I am told that almost all abortions in Jamaica are done in sterile conditions.
Dr John Patrick, a professor of science and bio-ethics from Ottawa, Canada, and a former consultant with the Tropical Metabolism and Research Unit in Kingston, says disturbing data about botched abortions in Jamaica is purely fictional.
The abortion policy review advisory group, in its presentation to Parliament in January, revealed that at one premier hospital in Jamaica, in a period of just six months, there were 641 patients admitted with abortion complications.
However, Patrick, who is president of Augustine College in Ottawa, and who was brought to Jamaica in early September by the Right to Life local groups to promote their cause, told The Gleaner there has never been a rate that high.
"Contrary to such reports, I am told that almost all abortions in Jamaica are done in sterile conditions," he said.
Strongest plank
The professor aims to remove one of the stoutest planks of the local pro-choice fraternity, which claims that abortion must be legalised in order to increase maternal safety.
In July, Affette McCaw-Binns, professor of reproductive health epidemiology at the University of the West Indies Department of Community Health and Psychiatry, said hundreds of women are admitted to hospital annually for complications associated with poorly done terminations.
McCaw-Binns recommended that medical providers, who are registered to do abortions, be monitored. In addition, regional public facilities, which could provide procedures safely to persons meeting the criteria, should be created.
According to Patrick, the local figures on botched abortions are likely to be grossly exaggerated.
"Even in America, when it was said that 10,000 women were dying annually - it was a lie."
Attempts by The Gleaner to get a response from the Kingston Public Hospital and other local health-care facilities were not successful.
Patrick said Jamaicans were divided on the issue of abortion because, with estimates of 30,000 abortions being done annually, it was a good bet that almost every adult has either "supported someone having one, had one themselves, or urged someone to do it".
The professor revealed that he was pro-choice for 20 years because of rubella babies who were born with severe neurological and other problems.
"I felt a woman had the right to terminate the child she did not want."
What changed his mind, he said, was pressure from university students who frequently asked him to speak to the issue as a bio-ethicist.
"Students bullied me into some teaching and this forced me to clarify my own thinking. I realised that my earlier position was the result of emotion and fear. It was not logical."
The choice to not take innocent life, he states, is the one that those who apply logic instead of fear will take.
"Could I justify the taking of the life of an innocent human being - could you justify the gratuitous harm, uninvited harm done to the innocent? I could not. I have given 50 lectures around the world and no one can justify this," he said.
Noting that, worldwide, 50 million abortions are done each year, the professor claimed maternal deaths have increased with legalisation and increased usage.
Parliament is currently reviewing possible amendments to the abortion laws.
