THE EDITOR, Sir:
ONE OF our great myths is that abortion is illegal here. As a result public hospitals and public health clinics seldom have procedures for the provision of that service. Last month's landmark decision of the U.N. Human Rights Committee should be a wake-up call for those who entertain this illusion.
The decision in favour of Karen Llantoy establishes that where the state denies access to legal abortion it violates a woman's basic human rights (Karen Llantoy v Peru CCPR/ C/85/D/1153/203, November 17, 2005). The Committee has instructed Peru to make reparations to Ms Llantoy and given it 90 days to submit guidelines to give effect to its law providing for therapeutic abortions.
STARTLING NEWS
This is startling news for all 154 countries that are party to this treaty and the Optional Protocol. This includes most Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Our statute law (Offences Against the Person Act, Ch 72 and 73) does not make abortion itself a crime. An "unlawful" element must first be present. Although restricted, abortion is legal here.
But merely having a provision for lawful abortion, however vague, is not enough. The Llantoy decision makes it clear that governments must have in place administrative mechanisms to ensure that those services, however restricted, are readily available, especially so given the sensitivity of time in respect of abortion services.
ANENCEPHALIC FOETUS
The facts in Llantoy's case are instructive. The 17-year-old woman was refused an abortion by a public hospital in Lima in spite of being diagnosed with an anencephalic foetus - one with little or no forebrain and therefore certain to die shortly after birth. She was obliged to carry the pregnancy to term and coerced into feeding the child for four days during its 'extended funeral'. She fell into a deep depression.
Decisions of this gravity should not rest on the whims of one hospital administrator or medical superintendent. There is a need for clear guidelines, not for one or two clinics, but for the entire health service, public and private alike. Needless to say, for guidelines to carry the weight of rights, the people must know them as well as the staff who have the duty to provide the service. All media are therefore important.
We can do this smartly by ourselves or wait to be embarrassed internationally as Peru was.
I am, etc.,
FRED NUNES
14907 Running Ridge Lane
Silver Spring, MD 20906
