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Bahamas called out on Abortions:
– Reported, January 23, 2013
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 womens rights and womens 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 governments CEDAW report, which is available online.
Despite the reports 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.
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 committees recommendations.
Women should be able to access legal abortions without question in cases of rape and incest and in other circumstances where a womans 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.
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