HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH Minister Dr Michael Darville says the question of whether abortion should be decriminalised is an issue Cabinet has started discussing.
Marion Bethel, the country’s representative on the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), has said decriminalising abortion should be prioritised along with criminalising marital rape and establishing a gender-based violence authority.
Her recent comment to The Nassau Guardian on the matter came as a delegation from the country prepares to head to the United Nations next month.
“As far as the decriminalisation of abortion, that’s an issue that we need to bring to Cabinet,” Dr Darville said yesterday. It’s an issue that many countries around the world struggle with.
“As far as our position, that has not been finalised but we’re aware of the challenges as a result of violence against women, we’re aware of the challenges of abortions. All of these things are issues that affect society and the Davis administration intends to confront the issues but at this particular time I cannot indicate what the Cabinet position is on it, but there has been some discussions, but I’ll leave it like that.
“As a physician, my position is a complex one. I don’t want to discuss it as it stands right now because there are so many different dimensions. Maybe one day we’ll have a symposium, because there are illegal abortions, there’s clinical abortions, there’s abortions that are tied into the possible death of the mother. These are sometimes tough decisions that need to be made so when we look at it just at the name itself in the medical arena, there’s many different areas where tough decisions need to be made but me personally, I withhold my position at this particular time because I do have strong positions.”
Comments
LastManStanding 2 years, 10 months ago
Bahamians need to wake up, all kind of perverse and sick ideologies are being pushed on in our country under the guise of "gender equality". Murdering your child has nothing to do with "gender equality".
Twocent 2 years, 10 months ago
As a nation that has called itself a “Christian nation” we must remember that to be so, it’s legal framework at the very least, we must start by honoring God’s TEN COMMANDMENTS. Respect for life is vital to the Christian ethos. Without God’s law what is there to guide mankind other than the whimsy of each man’s personal want, regardless of others and their “rights”. The right for life is fought first in the right to give birth, and the right to live should be given even to the voiceless. Without these basic principles we open the door to many other horrors and tyrannies to be inflicted on the infirm, the aged, the voiceless, the ignorant, the weak, and many others of whom such ideologies consider inconvenient and would persecute and dispose of.
Dawes 2 years, 10 months ago
Christian nation? If thats so lets ban all kids born out of wedlock citizenship, as thats against the bible too.
LastManStanding 2 years, 10 months ago
Funny how all of the people I know who went to prison all come from a similar background : absent father, single mother, born out of wedlock. It is almost as if God gave us guidance on how to live for a very good reason.
Dawes 2 years, 10 months ago
All of them? Anyway my point is just showing how hypocritical using the bible to suit peoples views are. If we were to do that we would have hourly stoning's of all the adulterers here.
LastManStanding 2 years, 10 months ago
Bahamian atheists do very well in identifying the problems of this nation, but have zero understanding of cause and effect. The crime and murder in this country did not appear out of nowhere, it is a symptom of a wider problem. Corrupt politicians are only indicative of our culture, so how did it get so corrupt? Whether anyone likes it or not, religion brings structure to a society; something that Bahamian society sorely lacks.
Also, you have a faulty understanding of Scripture. The Deuteronomic law might have condemned adulterers to death, but Christians are free from that law by the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Paul spoke heavily on this topic in the New Testament epistles. Religious jews would still be held to that law given that they do not confess Jesus as the Messiah. A big problem with the atheist Bahamian views on Christianity is that they are not informed on what they are talking about. I always recommend reading the Bible cover to cover before forming an opinion on it.
ForeverDreamer 2 years, 10 months ago
Actually Jesus being the messiah does not remove the rules or condemnations of the bible. It rather, allows for redemption under the eyes of God. This formed the foundation of the last rights of a man being executed by the State in western culture. "God save your soul" as you are hung by the neck until dead. Under your misguided apologetics, Abortion should be legal as through Christ we should be delivered from our sins. If man and woman can be delivered for other sins, inclusive of taking life, as you alluded to abortion being against the right for life, this is no different. But I guess women just have to carry the larger burden under your actual desire for continued tyranny. Just let the non-christians get their abortions. You so called christians can uphold your values without molestation as if you stay true to your faith, you will never have to have one.
LastManStanding 2 years, 10 months ago
I repeat what I said above : unless you have read the Bible cover to cover, keep your erroneous opinion of it to yourself. You are unqualified to talk about what is contained in it otherwise. If what you say is true (and it isn't), Christians would need to circumcise their male offspring and be held to the same dietary restrictions as jews. Paul wrote extensively against the Judaizers and literally refuted your exact argument in multiple epistles. The Old Covenant is long gone for Christians.
You are completely wrong on your second count of doing evil to bring about good, something once again spoken about in Paul's epistles. I repeat again, read Scripture before you make yourself look like a big jackass.
Last time I checked, that child is the man's own as much as the woman's. It takes two to tango, and the woman willingly spread her legs unless he held you down and raped you. I don't know where people like you get off spouting the foolishness that resides in your brains, but you must live in complete fantasy land.
Also, no we will not be left alone. Many Christians have gone to prison for refusing to pay taxes to abortion supporting governments or praying in front of Planned Parenthood centers. The Bahamas is a majority Christian nation, and we do not support abortion. It is funny how people like you love to preach about democracy and Enlightenment principles until they don't work in your favour, and then have the gall to talk about hypocrisy. You people are liars and deceivers like your father the devil.
ForeverDreamer 2 years, 10 months ago
You claim to have some higher understanding of the text without evidence but conclude my statements are wrong due to my lack of knowledge. I have read the text from cover to cover, along with other religious texts. Since I am so misguided, perhaps you will cite your rationale based on the scripture you feel is compelling. Unfortunately, this would require you to actually provide a basis and argument that now can be discussed or possibly refuted using the same text with reasonable and supported interpretations by difference scholars or religious bodies. So, peharps you may cite where certain othordox/jewish sins are no longer valid due to being Christian.
But you never even address the question of, if murder is forgivable through Christ and you accuse this of being murder which arguably it is, then how about you reconcile why one murder is not forgivable seemingly. If you mention the laws, then I would assume any law that is condoning of sin, is equally from "deceivers or fathers of the devil"?
I am not bothered by people's personal beliefs of the Christian context the nation was founded under, however a man who scream knowledge or wisdom of his own religion's text but refuses or is unable to demonstrate the basis of this, seems like a man who has forgotten Mathew 6:5.
truetruebahamian 2 years, 10 months ago
It is about time to allow legal abortion as it is the choice of the woman. Forget about these religeous zealots who read and voice scripted demands but cannot see the outdated results of those writings.
LastManStanding 2 years, 10 months ago
Your mother should have dismembered you limb by limb and then sucked your remains out of her womb with a vacuum cleaner. Being opposed to murder of the most vulnerable is a basic human concept. Anyone with a sound conscience, religious or not, should stand in opposition to it.
becks 2 years, 10 months ago
And yet here you are advocating exactly what you oppose, that "Your mother should have dismembered you limb by limb and then sucked your remains out of her womb with a vacuum cleaner". Your hypocrisy is stunningly obvious.
LastManStanding 2 years, 10 months ago
I'm sorry that they didn't teach you what a rhetorical device was in school, another product of the failed Bahamian education system I guess. People like you enjoy pretending that someone just claps their hands and makes the child disappear, I want everyone to be informed exactly how cruel the procedure is. No better than the savage Aztecs with their human sacrifices. Keep building up that strawman though as so many Bahamian edge lord atheists love to do.
ForeverDreamer 2 years, 10 months ago
The only rhetorical device you employ is willful ignorance and blind piece meal bible thumping.
LastManStanding 2 years, 10 months ago
Keep coming up with those insults, your 60 IQ brain might think of something good sometime soon.
tribanon 2 years, 10 months ago
My God, not another costly delegation to the UN !!!! The $300,000 cheque the UN just gave us to help with the Hurricane Dorian recovery effort will no doubt be spent to fund the huge government entourage (possibly headed by Fweddy Boy Mitchell) that will be flying to New York to stay in lavish accommodations while shopping, wining and dining to their hearts content.
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