|
By Gillian Kane, Ipas senior policy advisor
Until about five years ago if a woman wanted to use the bathroom at the Jamaican House of Parliament she had to leave the building. Built in 1960, the George William Gordon House clearly never anticipated having to accommodate the participation of women in legislative affairs. Still, the installation of a solitary bathroom stall does not mean gender parity has been achieved; today only 10 percent of the Jamaican parliament is female. The low political participation of women in Jamaican politics speaks volumes about the place of women in the country. There is however, a political debate raging in the Parliament that could significantly improve the status, health, and lives of women in Jamaica. For the first time in almost 30 years Jamaica is reviewing its abortion laws and it is possible that country could soon liberalize its punitive legislation.
Abortion is illegal in under the Offences against the Person Act of 1864, which is based on the 1861 English Act of the same title. The penalty for providers or for a woman for procuring an illegal abortion is “life imprisonment, with or without hard labour.” A common law does exist that allows abortion to save the life of the pregnant woman but there is no record of any legal abortions being provided in Jamaica.
In 2004, the Jamaican government, prompted by the high rates of maternal mortality from unsafe abortions, formed the Abortion Policy Review Advisory (APRA) group to evaluate Jamaica’s abortion laws and to make recommendations for improving them. The draft legislation, submitted to the government in February 2007, is quite progressive allowing for legal abortions for up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The government is now in the process of reviewing the recommendations through a Ministry of Health appointed parliamentary Joint Select Committee (JSC).
Hearings started at the end of last year and take place every Thursday. Opponents to the bill have been led by Father Richard Ho Lung, founder of the religious order the Missionaries to the Poor, who has categorized abortion as evil and barbaric. Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era’s (DAWN) Working Group on Women's Reproductive Health and Rights has coordinated the advocacy efforts in support of the right to abortion. DAWN members are experienced professionals working on sexual and reproductive rights and they argue for Jamaican women’s right to access to safe health care and their right to reproductive autonomy.
Recently, the Sistren Theatre Collective — a feminist organization working for more than 32 years in low income Jamaican neighborhoods sensitizing communities about issues of concern to women — presented to parliament. The theatrical submission by the Sistren Collective dramatized the personal experiences of inner-city women who face unwanted pregnancies. According to press accounts of the event, the Collective made a marked impression on members of parliament. Committee member St. Aubyn Bartlett commended the women saying “I see it as the voice of the people speaking.”
It remains to be seen how parliament will vote on the APRA’s recommendations. Several members of the 16 person Committee have been noticeably absent from many of the hearings. Indeed, many hearings have barely managed to meet a quorum and at the February 5th hearing only the chairman of the committee, Health Minister Rudyard Spenser, showed up.
The Jamaican government has the opportunity to improve its record on women’s rights. Installing a bathroom in the Parliament was certainly a positive first step but there’s a considerable distance to go.
For more information, contact media@ipas.org