Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I greet you in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life!

My purpose in standing before you today is to witness to the common position of the Christian churches in this country in our unanimous rejection of abortion on demand. We have been reliably informed of the recent effort to table the Report of the Abortion Advisory Group, and this not only causes us deep concern but also raises many questions about accountability and principles. We have not, thus far, seen an organized effort by any group to respond to this development, but it is our intention to make such a response today with a united front of churches and civic groups.

First and foremost, it needs to be noted that in the three years that this Abortion Advisory Group has been in existence, the Christian people of Jamaica have never been truly consulted on this divisive issue despite multiple promises of inclusion in the process. Had our people been legitimately consulted about this matter at the beginning, we would have objected to the very existence of an effort designed to increase the killing of innocent children in our country.

What we are asking for is serious consultation on issues of greatest public concern. Indeed, the only effort to consult our membership was the inclusion of one member of the clergy in the 13-member Advisory Group. This clergyman refused to sign the final Report to the Ministry of Health. As a matter of fact, one other member of the health profession also refused to sign the Report. Doesn’t that say something about the content of the report?

It also needs to be noted that certain churches whose positions are known to be strongly against the legalized killing of children seem to have been deliberately excluded from offering input on this issue. In 2006, it was discovered that an informal 10-question survey of the Abortion Advisory Group had been handed out to select individuals under the rubric of consultation. The survey was apparently never meant to be distributed widely and was bound with a very tight timeline for responses. The Archdiocesan Family Life Commission indirectly obtained a copy and responded immediately with a carefully-researched response running to 12 pages, but nothing was ever heard again about that submission.

We believe that other churches and civic groups made similar responses to this ill-advised effort, but there is no record of these ever having been used or cited. The Report, as we read it, contains not one reference to support any other position than a pro-abortion viewpoint. In fact, of the 14 footnotes contained in the report, seven are from abortion activists who led the efforts to legalize abortion in Barbados and Guyana, and the rest cite pro-abortion legal precedents or policies.

Not only is the project to liberalize abortion in Jamaica contrary to the Law of God, it also militates against the deeply-held values of this nation. The people of Jamaica have not asked for abortion; the churches have not asked for it nor has the vast majority of civic groups or their leaders. A reasonable person might rightly question who exactly it is that wishes to impose abortion on this nation.

What has been asked for in a forceful way is the protection of Jamaican women by a serious effort to enforce existing abortion laws. We have urged our political leaders in the past, and fervently repeat to this present government, such concrete measures as adequate obstetrical care for mothers in rural areas, help for women in high-risk pregnancies, abstinence education for young people and programs of family strengthening.

To conclude, I would like to highlight one very concrete response of the Christian church against abortion at this critical moment in our history: namely, several groups and churches have already begun a petition campaign to make our government aware of our sentiments about this effort to promote abortion on demand. We intend to vigorously promote this campaign during the Lenten season to canvass the opinions, not only of the churches, but of all the people of Jamaica. In addition to that response and campaign, some church-related groups are seriously engaged in setting up facilities that would assist pregnant women to bring to term their pregnancies with the possibility of adoption.

May the Lord bless us in these efforts and continue to bless Jamaica in her children, born and unborn.

Thank you for your kind attention to this message.