A senior clergyman has described as atrocious, disgraceful and alarming a recommendation by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) that minors be allowed to access an abortion on their own without the consent of a parent.
Bishop Dr. Alvin Bailey, the chairman of the Jamaica Churches Action Uniting Society for Emancipation (CAUSE), said in a statement on Monday that the proposal by CAPRI “must be rejected by all well thinking Jamaicans”.
He added that such a call could be translated to mean that “these persons of high intelligence and outstanding academic achievements are spiritually deprived in advocating abortion as a method of contraceptive.”
In fact, Bishop Bailey said CAPRI’S suggestion has exposed what he said is a moral and ethical crisis that now exists in Jamaica.
“This is an abomination and is contrary to Christian values. To condemn to death our unborn children for the expediency of socio-economic benefits is contemporary barbarism,” he noted.
The research institute put forward its proposal in its European Union-funded report titled: Coming to Terms: The Social Costs of Unequal Access to Safe Abortions, the findings of which were presented last Thursday during a webinar.
According to CAPRI’s report, “The requirement of parental consent or notification may delay young women’s abortion care leading to more risky and costlier late-term abortion procedures, or even cause the young women to resort to illegal or self-induced abortions in a fear of parental reactions.”
It was one of three recommendations made by CAPRI; the others being that parliamentarians be allowed to cast a secret vote on the issue of legalising abortion in order to protect their integrity and that public funding should be provided for those wishing to terminate a pregnancy.
However, the chairman of Jamaica CAUSE said the Christian church considers the CAPRI report – and its insistent support of the legalisation of abortion – to be against all Biblical and moral values, primarily because, he said, it disregards the sanctity of human lives.
“A few misguided individuals, in spite of indisputable Biblical references, choose to blaspheme the Word of God for popularity and recognition,” he noted. However, he said the Christian Church and the general religious community will never sanction what he called a middle-passage type legislation to destroy human lives for socio-economic benefit in a referendum.
Bishop Bailey opined that CAPRI’s position on the matter endorses women mutilating their bodies to kill their unborn children, while risking their lives, under the guise that they were in charge of their own bodies and were safeguarding their well being.
“Let’s face the harsh reality. The views of the pro-abortionists have less to do with liberating women and allowing them the freedom to choose. It is about advancing the global agenda of powerful and influential international agencies, by paying the price in order to gain access to funding for Jamaica.
“It is about a quick fix for the shortage of urgently needed social systems which are put on the back burner because of growing economic challenges. It is about increasing the wealth of doctors who charge large sums for their services,” Bailey said, adding “It is about the ignorance of the dangers and possible death of the pregnant mother, as well as the permanent emotional and psychological damage abortion does to the woman who commits the act and her family.”
He said Jamaica’s legacy cannot be defined by the planned execution of our unborn children as a means of population control in support of pre-determined social construct, political expediency or self-centred ideological objectives of elected individuals and other influencers.
“In the final analysis Jamaicans, under it present leadership, must decisively define its own sovereign moral and ethical identity, then motivate our people, our politics and our socio-economic leaders to support that sovereign purpose,” said Bishop Bailey.
SOURCE: LOOP NEWS – CREATED 8 FEBRUARY 2021
www.loopjamaica.com/content/abomination-bishop-slams-capris-abortion-proposal
