JAMAICA-POPULATION: Abortion issue still confusing many

KINGSTON, Dic 30 (IPS) - Twenty-nine year old Janet has had two illegal abortions at a private clinic. The first was in February 1986 and the second in November 1986.

"It is not only the most terrifying experience that I have ever had. It has caused me to have nightmares and wake up in cold sweat ... I don't think I will ever forget what I did," she says.

Under the Offences Against the Persons Act no medical practitioner can legally terminate a pregnancy without the risk of being brought before the court.

Provision is made, however, by the Ministry of Health for legal abortion to be performed if the health of the mother is at risk. This is undertaken at only one public institution - the Glen Vincent Polyclinic where the service is provided by a qualified doctor, states the Ministry of Health.

Not many persons within the medical profession are willing to talk about the subject and even the Ministry of Health is reluctant to give information on the topic.

A source at the Ministry of Health told IPS that many abortions were being done under undesirable circumstances by unskilled persons using non-sterile instruments.

In 1993 seven patients, according to information from the Ministry of Health, had required hysterectomies after undergoing unhygienic abortions. Two of them were 15 year olds.

A recent World Health Organisation report says that the Caribbean and Latin America have the highest incidence of unsafe, induced abortions among the regions of the developing world.

The report states that between four and six million abortions, the majority of them clandestine, are performed each year. Most of these abortions are performed by persons using inadequate techniques under unhygienic conditions and without medical supervision, WHO reports.

The variety of severe complications which arise from unsafe abortion practices included sepsis (infection), haemorrhage, genital and abdominal trauma which can lead to death or permanent disability if left untreated, the WHO publication stated.

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