'State-sanctioned' abortions

As of Tuesday, August 14, 2012

By NOELLE NICOLLS

Tribune Features Editor

nnicolls@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas government disclosed information on possible state-sanctioned abortions in a report last month to the international committee of the United Nations governing discrimination against women.

Although abortion is currently illegal in the Bahamas, the government revealed that it is aware of cases where licensed physicians perform abortions in private and public hospitals for justifiable reasons, such as “foetal deformity and rape or incest, as well as on health grounds”.

Such abortions are made possible because “the law is interpreted very liberally,” according to a report submitted to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The CEDAW committee expressed concern about the legal provisions for protecting women and called on the government to “broaden the conditions under which abortion can be legally available, including in instances of rape and incest.”

• For full coverage of the CEDAW report on abortion, our Woman section HERE.

Taylor 11 years, 8 months ago

Our nation is pro-abortion, not pro-life.

"Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants." - Mother Teresa

proudloudandfnm 11 years, 8 months ago

If a woman's life is in danger or if she is raped by a stranger or a relative then early term abortions should be used, we should have the morning after pill available for any woman that is raped. Late term abortions are violent and I think uneccessary. But early term like taking the morning after pill I see no problem with whatsoever as long as it justified.

Taylor 11 years, 8 months ago

Life starts at Conception is the solely rational view, anything other view is based on propaganda because it clearly goes against basic reason and common sense. At 8 weeks, brain waves can be detected and all internal organs are present. Now if our society can't make the decision to define life and protect it from the moment of conception, then we don't have a great moral authority to tell people to stop killing each other on the streets. If we don't know when life begins and are not ready to protect life or if we make exceptions like with early term, then people with guns may feel free to make exceptions themselves with people they think don't deserve to live out the rest of their lives.

MartGM 11 years, 8 months ago

The morning after pill will not induce an abortion. From what I understand, it is used to stop the sperm from fertilizing the egg. Essentially, it's a very strong birth control pill. It will not terminate a pregnancy. If the egg has already been fertilized, the morning after pill won't do anything.

I also agree that the morning after pill should be easily accessible in the pharmacy. It needs to be over the counter.

What we really need is proper sex education in the schools. Young men and women need to know the safest practices, starting with abstinence.