The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I read with sadness comments attributed to Dr. Duane Sands in which he shared his belief that the law against abortion in The Bahamas should be amended to permit abortions in cases where microcephaly has been identified. Dr. Sands has repeatedly called for abortion to be made legal in The Bahamas, so while saddened by his microcephaly comments, I’m not surprised by them. Actually, I wonder if his recent comments are part and parcel of his back door approach to seek to have our law against abortion repealed in a gradual way.

Dr. Sands seems to believe that if an unborn baby has a birth defect, or is simply unwanted, he or she should be aborted (meaning, legally murdered). Thus, to my mind, Dr. Sands does not value babies in the womb. But more than that, he does not seem to fear God, the Creator of all babies. But thankfully, Dr. Sands’ pro-abortion views are not shared by the overwhelming majority of Bahamians.

While I can only imagine the anguish that parents suffer when they learn that their child in the womb has or is likely to have birth defects, the fact remains the child is still their child. And vulnerable children in the womb need their parents to protect them, not destroy them, and this is especially so for unborn children with actual or potential birth defects.

We live in a fallen world, and birth defects, whether from Zika or other causes, are all because of the fall. But like the rest of us, those born with birth defects are created by God and loved by God. And the state has a duty to protect all human life, inside and outside of the womb. In addition, the financial and other resources of the state should be used to assist parents in compassionately caring for children with birth defects.

Voters in Elizabeth, Dr. Sands is once again vying to be your elected representative in Parliament. Therefore, I urge you to evaluate whether you share Dr. Sands’ moral values, like his support for abortion. If you do not, I encourage you not to vote for him (especially if you are living with a birth defect). I certainly would not vote for him if I were voting in Elizabeth. But this evaluation should not only be done for Dr. Sands’ values; it should be done for all candidates’ values. And we as voters should not be blinded by allegiance to a party or an individual and robotically vote for people whose values and morals we disagree with. Many people in the United States did that with Mr. Barack Obama, and they now regret it.

When political parties send candidates who clearly do not represent the values and morals of the constituents they seek to represent, especially on important issues like protecting the unborn, those candidates deserve to be rejected. And I pray that Dr. Sands and others like him are soundly rejected in the upcoming general elections.

PASTOR CEDRIC MOSS

Nassau,

August 30, 2016.