Abortion debate

Ol meri, your views on this issue please!! Its an issue of increasing concern in PNG and one which should be addressed.

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Taken from Post Courier (23.10.03)

Open debate on abortion - Mola

A LEADING gynaecologist and a Government Minister yesterday called for more debate on abortion.
This was to ensure the issue, as sensitive as it is, was discussed fully and the law relating to it fully understood, Dr Glen Mola and Minister for Social Welfare and Development Lady Carol Kidu told a Port Moresby conference.
While abortion was illegal in the country, it was also legal for it to be performed if a mother’s life was in danger.
“The general perception in PNG is that you are not allowed to touch the baby. No doctor would want to do that but there are exceptions where a mother’s life is in danger and I’m sorry to say, but the baby has to go,’’ Dr Mola said.
He said the law on abortion was inherited from the United Kingdom through Queensland, Australia. After independence it was modified in the early 1980s when there was suddenly an increase in abortions.
A legal opinion given at that time by the State Solicitor states that “it was legal to terminate a pregnancy if the life of a woman was in danger if she was to continue the pregnancy’’.
“Although that opinion was given in 1983, it was never really understood. It is a sensitive issue and the last thing that any doctor would want is to be accused of killing babies,” Dr Mola said.
He said about two to three women called him every second day asking for an abortion but he turned them down, adding there were private clinics performing abortions in PNG.
However, whether these were done to protect a women’s lives was not clear and he urged people not make judgmental accusations.
Women were also performing abortions through unsafe methods while there were others who had gone to Australia for the operation.
He said many women were dying from unsafe abortions and something needed to be done to address the issue, including offering counselling to help women make the right decisions.
Lady Kidu said the maternal death rate in PNG was high and one way to tackle this was to educate women about their reproductive rights to be able to make informed choices.
She urged government departments work with the Health Department on the issue.