Abortion is way too easy Doctor urges incentives, family support to tackle failing birth rate

As Jamaica grapples with declining births and renewed calls for citizens to have more children, president of the Love March Movement, Dr Daniel Thomas, says abortion has become “way too easy” and believes the country must confront changing attitudes towards pregnancy, marriage and family life.

“Definitely, abortion is way too easy in this country and it’s a crime. Everybody knows it is happening, but people don’t want to do anything about it,” Thomas told THE STAR.

His comments come against the backdrop of Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton again raising concerns about Jamaica’s declining fertility and encouraging Jamaicans to have more children. For Thomas, however, simply urging Jamaicans to reproduce will not reverse the trend.

“There is an underbelly of a desire for independence from children. Part of that is just not having children at all,” he said.

Thomas said he believes there has been a noticeable change in the way some younger Jamaicans approach marriage and parenthood. That shift, he argued, is also reflected in conversations surrounding abortion, where expressions such as “dash weh belly” are sometimes used casually in popular culture and everyday conversation. While many Jamaicans may oppose the practice in principle, Thomas believes those convictions can quickly be tested.

“The latest poll on abortion demonstrated that 75 per cent of Jamaicans do not believe that the law against abortion should be changed; it should remain as is, that it is illegal,” Thomas said.

“But it is significant that a number of persons are still pursuing abortion. So it seems that there is an intellectual position that is held, but when push comes to shove and the woman is under the weight of that emotional moment, when she is in a crisis pregnancy, an unplanned pregnancy, that intellectual position probably gives way to what is seen as the easier way out,” he said.

According to Thomas, the Love March Movement has sought to intervene by providing emotional and practical support to women considering terminating their pregnancies.

“What we are trying to say is that we will come alongside women and offer them the support that they need,” he said. Thomas said the movement has so far persuaded women considering abortion to continue 47 pregnancies, arguing that, in some cases, knowing support is available can change a woman’s decision.

“We have live births which are about 35,000 per year, but the abortion rate is estimated around 15,000 per year,” he said.

Beyond abortion, Thomas believes Jamaica must also reckon with decades of messaging that encouraged citizens to have smaller families. He pointed to the country’s family-planning campaigns, particularly those beginning in the 1970s, arguing that they successfully changed how Jamaicans viewed family size.

“That was the most successful social engineering campaign that has ever happened in this country,” Thomas said. “The messaging behind it was that children are not a blessing, but they are an economic burden.”

“And so if we are gonna make a change, it has to be that we approach it in a coherent way and undo what has been done by the National Family Planning Board. It was a mistake,” he said.

Still, Thomas conceded that today’s economic conditions may also discourage Jamaicans from having larger families. He believes calls for more children must be accompanied by conditions that make raising them viable.

“If we just tell them have children and we do not build the structure within which a child is formed into a productive citizen, we would have done ourselves a serious injustice.”

Among the measures Thomas wants considered are significant incentives for families willing to have “the third and the fourth child”. Thomas suggested substantial tax relief and educational assistance for married families raising additional children.

“Once you can demonstrate that you are married in a family, the third or fourth child should be able to give them significant tax breaks, like half of their income tax, free schooling, whatever it is,” he said. “We have to become dramatic in that and send the message that children are a blessing.”

He also wants greater intervention when women face unplanned pregnancies, arguing that financial, emotional and family support could make the difference in deciding whether to abort.

“Imagine if every health centre across this country was sending that message to Jamaican women: anything that you need, the Government has said they will support you to keep that child, to strengthen your family, to get you into a mentorship programme so that you know how to parent,” Thomas said.

He suggested employment assistance, emotional support and greater involvement of fathers, grandparents and other relatives where necessary. For Thomas, such intervention could form part of a broader national strategy.

“We need children for our country and if we don’t do that, we are gonna have a serious socioeconomic shift that we are heading towards,” he said. “We won’t have enough people to be in the workforce in a number of years and so we might end up have to push the age of retirement to 75.”