By IPS Correspondents
PORT OF SPAIN, Mar 5 2007 (IPS)

In 1999, the U.S. economists John Donohue and Steven Levitt argued that the sharp decline in murder rates in the United States in the 1990s could be traced back to the legalisation of abortion by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.

In their study, they claimed that the ruling caused a decrease in the births of unwanted children, a disproportionate number of whom would have grown up to be criminals.

In the mid-1970s, the Trinidad and Tobago Family Planning Association (FPA) conducted a study asking a sampling of over 3,000 mothers whether their last baby was planned.

The study found that as many as 80 percent of those polled said “no” and when asked whether they were pleased and accepted the child, nearly half of them, or 40 percent, also said “no”.

“What this tells us is that all through the 1970s and 1980s, large numbers of unwanted children were born in Trinidad and Tobago, growing up without one or both parents in a dysfunctional or non-existent family setting. Today we are reaping that harvest, as many of them are the angry criminals that are assaulting our society,” wrote Emile Elias, who served as FTA president for 26 years until he resigned in 1999.

Whether or not opposition legislator Harry Mungalsingh knew about the U.S. or local studies is not known, but last week, in a debate in the Trinidad and Tobago parliament, he caused a major furore when he called on the authorities to seriously consider abortion and cash incentives for sterilisation for women as part of an overall strategy to deal with the rising crime situation here.

The Patrick Manning administration has made it clear that it has no intention of reforming the existing laws on abortion and is “still discussing” a 139-page draft gender policy designed to “promote gender equity, equality, social justice and sustainable human development in Trinidad and Tobago”.

Last year, Manning said that the draft document did not reflect his government’s policy. A network of civil society and women’s rights groups says it intends bringing up the issue as part of the activities marking International Women’s Day on Thursday.

Abortions are legally available in Trinidad and Tobago only if they are to preserve the physical and or mental health of the mother, and the practice requires the corroboration of two medical practitioners.

One group, Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving Reproductive Equity (ASPIRE), which has been campaigning for abortion law reform in Trinidad and Tobago, has distanced itself from the remarks made by Mungalsingh, saying it has never advocated using that argument regarding abortion.

“The whole thing we promote is women’s right to a comprehensive safe abortion. Our issue has been public health concerns,” ASPIRE’s spokesperson, Glenis Hyacinth, told IPS.

She said while there have been many theories regarding the link between unwanted pregnancies and criminal activities, there were also “some people who think these theories are flawed”.

“Our priority is that there is need for abortion law reform, there is need for a sexual and reproductive health package in Trinidad and Tobago,” she said.

In a message marking International Women’s Day, the Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINAD) reminded authorities that, “The sacrifices that women make when their sons or partners are killed or incarcerated are phenomenal. Many times they must divert resources from the daily management of their homes to fund legal fees and burials.”

“This puts additional burdens on them as caregivers and they now have to find even more ingenious ways of providing for their dependents. Women are also victims of gender-based gun violence, as they fall prey to intimidation and domestic violence. Our search for gender justice demands that we engage in a candid conversation about the status of women and women’s ability to live free from fear,” WINAD said.

In his presentation to the Senate last week, Mungalsingh, an Indo-Trinidadian, said that 83 percent of the prison population comes from specific communities, mainly those inhabited by Afro-Trinidadians, “which predicates the need for a strong and distinct national development plan accepted by the entire society for these specific 16 communities”.

“Such a plan must include the churches, a change in abortion laws, strong family planning services, with cash incentives for voluntary sterilisation,” he added.

It is “an idea to please (Adolf) Hitler” said the Trinidad Guardian newspaper in an editorial on Mungalsingh’s recommendation, while NEWSDAY, another daily newspaper, argued that “abortion law reform, which has a serious health impact on women, especially poor women, is an issue which needs a rational and rigorous airing.”

“Clearly, however, the politicians on both the government and the opposition benches do not wish to tackle this contentious issue. Politics, rather than effective public policy, is their priority. It is a pity that this pressing problem should stay unresolved because of that.”

Independent legislator and law lecturer Dana Seetahal said the theory advocated by Mungalsingh is “shorn of statistical proof”.

“It has never been a serious suggestion that the way to solve the predominance of criminality in any community is to change the abortion laws or to encourage voluntary sterilisation,” she wrote in a newspaper column.

“The presupposition explicit in the suggestion is that the chief cause of crime is biological,” she added.

In an election year, the main opposition United National Congress moved swiftly to reduce the fallout caused by Mungalsingh’s statement, claiming that his statement did not reflect party policy and firing him as a legislator.

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