The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

There is no such legal creature as “marital rape” and I, as a trained lawyer, am sick and dead tired over the miss abuse application of that terminology. In law, rape is rape....the forcible sexual intimacy between a male and female, regardless of marital status. A woman's or man's body belongs to him or herself, apart from God as our Creator.

That being said, no man has the right to force sexual intercourse upon his wife. Husbands are not normally raped even if many men would welcome such a move by otherwise cold and frigid wives. I have been on the blocks for a long time and have been twice married, not to mention multiple female consorts before I caught myself. I have never had to rape anyone. Yes, a little tough persuasion, but never behaviour which would have/could have amounted to rape itself.

Why would a real man have to rape anyone, much less his wife who lives with him and sleeps, I presume in the same bed? Leg, to put it delicately, is available in The Bahamas like white on rice. There is no need to have to rape anyone, much less your wife. The common law already provides ample legal relief where a man forces himself on a female or even, God forbid, another male. Rape is rape and is well defined within our Criminal Procedure Code and other long standing laws.

There is no need to tweak this or to waste time in parliament on a non-issue. To debate otherwise is pure distraction and shaving cream. The bottom line is that - Yes a man, regardless of marital status is able to rape his wife but there is no need, in my view, to pass specific legislation. Married women or estranged wives already have protection under the law.

Illegal abortions or the taking of the life of an unborn person is tantamount to murder and should be viewed as such. If one is going to engage in sexual activity either wear a condom in the case of a male or utilise the myriad selection of birth control pills and other known methods. In this day and age, there is no need or expectation of 'unwanted pregnancies'. The choice is stark: Keep your legs closed or simply use birth control methods.

God alone has the power to procreate and He alone should be in a position to state when human life begins or end. Some say that it is the woman's body and I fully agree with that. It is dead wrong, however, to abrogate to any woman the inherent 'right' to unilaterally determine who is to live or who is to be aborted. Of course, there are always legal exceptions that may play out; rape and incest readily come to mind. Incest could result in mentally challenged infants and rape could impose severe challenges for the female.

As a man who follows the dictates of The Lord Jesus Christ, I am a proponent of the principle: “Behold I came that there may be abundant life”.....God is the God of life and renewal, not a God of destruction for mere personal or convenient reasons. For decades many Bahamian doctors and some midwives, allegedly, have performed what is commonly known as 'D&C' procedures whereby whatever is in the womb is sucked out and discarded in a plastic bag on the altar of convenience, for a fee, of course. This is a gross crime against God and humanity and should be criminalised to the maximum. Selah.

ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr

Nassau,

February 24, 2022.