Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

A sharp debate over whether a woman who has been raped should be allowed to abort the child caused a spark during yesterday's sitting of the joint select committee examining the report of the abortion policy review group.

However, the lack of fire did not detract from an interesting sitting as anti-abortion advocates tried to convince members of the committee not to relax the laws governing abortion.

Anti-abortion advocate Romain Stewart was adamant as he told the committee that at no time and under no circumstances should the law permit terminations.

"Adoption is an option and it should be the only option. As I was saying, the first right is the right to life and this is more fundamental than happiness," Stewart argued.

Questioning

That did not sit well with Opposition Senator Sandrea Falconer who, along with her colleague Lisa Hanna, led the questioning of persons who made presentations before the committee.

"I strongly disagree with you and I don't believe that a woman who was raped should have to carry that child," Falconer said.

But Stewart, who had spent some time making his presentation, would not back down.

"We cannot approach life and measure life by the absence of suffering. Nine months is not a life sentence," he declared.

Falconer, who obviously had strong views on the matter, was not prepared to allow that statement to pass by.

"I just think that it is a wrong principle that a woman who has been brutally raped should be forced against her will to keep something that was forcefully put in her body," she responded.

Other anti-abortion supporters urged the committee to ignore the growing clamour for what they described as "abortion on demand" and stick with the present laws which make abortion illegal and punishable with a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The joint select committee is to continue to hear submissions from interest groups and stage public sessions around the country before making recommendations to Parliament.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com