Baptists: No one answer to abortion question
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE JAMAICA Baptist Union (JBU) says it is not seeing the issue of legalising abortions as “a black-and-white situation”.
“We would not simply say we are pro-life or not prolife,” said the Reverend Merlyn Hyde-Riley, the JBU’s associate general secretary, while addressing this week’s launch of the JBU’s upcoming community partnership fair at the Grand-A-View Restaurant in Montego Bay.
“It must be treated sensitively and in a caring and compassionate manner. We prefer not to speak in terms of pro-life or not because we would not say there is a single answer to the question,” added Hyde-Riley.
She said that while the JBU affirms that based on the creation story, man is an affirmation of life, there are circumstances that may warrant other choices.
“The JBU affirms the fact that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, and, therefore, we are affirming of life. But inasmuch as we affirm life, we recognise that there are circumstances that are very difficult for women – for example, in a case where the mother’s life is at risk – and serious contemplation has to be given to what to do.”
EXCEPTIONS
Just days ago, Pastor Ted Wilson, leader of the Seventhday Adventist World Church, said his organisation would not support abortion except in cases of rape or incest or if the mother’s life was in danger.
Last Wednesday, clergymen and anti-abortion campaigners made submissions at a meeting of Parliament’s Human Resource and Social Development Committee, where Member of Parliament Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn’s motion to decriminalise abortion was under debate.
Cuthbert-Flynn tabled a private member’s motion last year to repeal Sections 72 and 73 of the Offences Against the Person Act and substitute them with the Termination of Pregnancy Act as recommended by the Abortion Policy Review Group in 2007.