Bahamas Called Out On Abortions
By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Features Write
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net
Nassau, The Bahamas
Although abortion is currently illegal in the Bahamas, the government revealed that it is aware of cases where licensed physicians perform abortions in private and public hospitals for justifiable reasons.
Such abortions are made possible because “the law is interpreted very liberally”, according to a report submitted by the government last month to the international committee of the United Nations governing discrimination against women.
During
its fifth periodic report to the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the government stated
that abortions are performed in the Bahamas on “grounds of foetal
deformity and rape or incest, as well as on health grounds”. CEDAW is an
international human rights treaty that focuses on women’s rights and
women’s issues worldwide, ratified by the Bahamas in 1993.
“Abortions
are usually performed within the first trimester, although they are
often allowed up to 20 weeks of gestation. The abortion must be
performed in a hospital by a licensed physician. Government hospitals
bear the cost for non-paying patients,” states the government’s CEDAW
report, which is available online.
Despite
the report’s detailed account of the practice as it occurs in the
Bahamas, the Bahamian government “avoided answering specific questions”
posed by the experts on the CEDAW committee about the availability of
statistics regarding state-sanctioned abortions, according to observers.
“Their
fall-back position that abortions are illegal was inadequate, because
the committee was not asking about illegal abortions. The committee was
asking for statistics on state-sanctioned abortions, which the
government, in its written report, suggested occurs,” said Donna
Nicolls, civil society representative for the Bahamas, and presenter of
the Bahamas Crisis Centre’s shadow report.
“The
Cuban representative on the committee said she was not convinced by the
government’s response. She said that normally statistics on illegal
abortions are not shown; however, if the state says that abortion can be
practised in a safe space, she questioned why the state doesn’t have
statistics. If it is being done, certainly a register would be
maintained,” said Ms Nicolls, who participated in the forum through the
assistance of the International Women’s Rights Action Watch (IWRAW),
Asian Pacific.
Former
Minister of Health Dr Hubert Minnis said he had “no comment” on the
abortion issue, because he was in “Abaco campaigning.” When asked if he
was aware of any state-sanctioned abortions from his five years in
government, he replied: “No comment.”
A
respected medical doctor, who works in the public system, told The
Tribune, there are no statistics on abortion because the market for
abortions in the Bahamas is underground. The physician said the practice
is governed by a “nod and a wink” culture, quietly supported by some
licensed physicians.
“Don’t
ask, don’t tell,” said the physician, but you can obtain an abortion in
the Bahamas for around $750, although the price varies above and below
depending on the physician or the location. Access to abortions, he
said, is rife with class discrimination.”
“If
you have the means to an abortion, it is not a big deal. You can
travel, or you can have it done here safely, but if you are a poor
woman, then dog eat your lunch. This becomes a massive issue, but how do
you deal with this issue, when it is taboo. It is absolutely taboo,”
said the physician.
“You
have such a strong pseudo-Christian movement that is so hypocritical.
Many people are just not prepared to deal with the backlash, despite the
fact that quietly they will either perform abortions or see to it that
they get done. Some of the most active abortionists who have moved away
from it in the later years, you wouldn’t think they have ever performed
an abortion,” the physician said.
“Ethical and less than ethical means of abortion exist in the Bahamas. The challenge is that it is not codified.”
Abortion
is criminalised in the Bahamas through the Penal Code of 1924. In its
“very limited” references to abortion, it allows “for abortions to be
lawfully permitted under specific circumstances relating explicitly to
the preservation of the mental and physical health of the woman and to
save the life of the woman.”
However,
the law also states that acts that lead to an abortion or are intended
to cause an abortion that done “in good faith and without negligence for
the purposes of medical or surgical treatment” are justifiable.
According to the government report, the code does not define what
constitutes medical or surgical treatment, and in practice, the law is
interpreted very liberally.
The
CEDAW committee reiterated its “concern” in its concluding
observations, and called on the government to “broaden the conditions
under which abortions can be legally available.”
Ms Nicolls said she concurred with the committee’s recommendations.
“Women
should be able to access legal abortions without question in cases of
rape and incest and in other circumstances where a woman’s health is at
risk. The law should explicitly provide exceptions in those cases. It
should not be ad hoc, or based on a ‘liberal interpretation’. Everyone
should have equal access,” said Ms Nicolls.
Melanie
Griffin, Minister of Social Services, could not be reached for comment
and did not return calls. Barbara Burrows, Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Social Services, who was a member of the Bahamas’
delegation, said she would seek answers to written questions provided by
The Tribune.
August 14, 2012
Tribune242
