Birth Control and Abortion

Birth Control
Birth control, also known as contraception, is designed to prevent pregnancy. Birth
control methods may work in several different ways:

• Preventing sperm from getting to the eggs. Types include condoms,

diaphragms, cervical caps, and contraceptive sponges.
• Keeping the woman's ovaries from releasing eggs that could be fertilized.
Types include birth control pills, patches, shots, vaginal rings, and
emergency contraceptive pills.
• IUDs, devices which are implanted into the uterus. They can be kept in place
for several years.
• Sterilization, which permanently prevents a woman from getting pregnant or
a man from being able to get a woman pregnant.

Christian Perspective on Contraceptive and Birth Control

✓ Christian ideas about contraception come from church teachings rather

than scripture, as the Bible has little to say about the subject. As a result,
their teachings on birth control are often based on different Christian
interpretations of the meaning of marriage, sex and the family.

✓ Christian acceptance of contraception is relatively new; all churches

disapproved of artificial contraception until the start of the 20th century.

✓ In modern times different Christian churches hold different views about the
rightness and wrongness of using birth control.

✓ Liberal Protestant churches often teach that it is acceptable to use birth

control, as long as it is not used to encourage or permit promiscuous
behaviour.

✓ Less liberal churches only approve the use of contraception for people who
are married to each other.

✓ Since these churches regard sex outside marriage as morally wrong (or if not
wrong, as less than good), they believe that abstaining from sex would be
morally better than having sex and using birth control.
 ✓ More conservative churches suggest that contraception should be limited to
married couples who are using it to regulate the size and spacing of their
family. They often teach that using contraception to prevent children
altogether is not desirable.

✓ The Roman Catholic Church only allows 'natural' birth control, by which it
means only having sex during the infertile period of a woman's monthly
cycle. Artificial methods of contraception are banned.

✓ Therefore, the only way for a Catholic couple to be faithful to the Church's
teachings on human sexuality and to avoid having children is to use 'natural'
family planning. The Church forbids sex outside marriage, so its teachings
about birth control should be understood in the context of husband and wife.

The Church teaches that using artificial contraception is wrong because:

• it is against 'natural law'

• it breaks the natural connection between the procreative and the unitive
purposes of sex
• it turns sex into a non-marital act

• it gives human beings the power to decide when a new life should begin -
that power belongs to God
• it leads to widespread immorality

• it damages the institution of marriage

• it reduces male respect for women

• it gives human beings the idea that they can have complete power over the
body.

Abortion
What is an abortion?

An abortion is when a pregnancy is ended by the deliberate removal of the fetus

from the womb so that it does not result in the birth of a child.

What does the law say about abortion?

Abortion is illegal in Jamaica under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1864,
which is based on the 1861 English Act of the same title. Under the Act, any person
who, intending to procure a miscarriage, regardless of whether the woman is with
child, unlawfully administers to her any poison or noxious thing or unlawfully uses
any instrument or other means to the same end is subject to life imprisonment,
with or without hard labour. A pregnant woman who acts in the same way with
respect to her own pregnancy is subject to the same penalty.

Grounds on which abortion is permitted in Jamaica:

• To save the life of the woman Yes

• To preserve physical health Yes
• To preserve mental health Yes
• Rape or incest No
• Fetal impairment No
• Economic or social reasons No
• Available on request No

Additional requirements:

The spouse’s consent is required. To perform an abortion on the grounds of mental

health,

fetal impairment, rape or incest, the approval of two specialists must be obtained.

Church’s view on abortion

The most church states that abortion is always wrong because life begins at
conception and is God given.

1. This means that in the eyes of the Church abortion is classed as murder and
goes against the commandment, thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13). This
commandment is reiterated by Jesus in Matthew 19:18.
2. The Church also disagrees with abortion as it goes against natural law, which
is an act that goes against what nature intended. The Church takes an
absolutist stance on this and believes that abortion is wrong in all situations.
3. The Church is pro-life. They argue that all life starts out in the same way, so
all life should have the chance to develop and survive.
4. The Church argues that all life has value, and that to take life away is a sin.
The Church would argue on behalf of the unborn child that it should be cared
for and looked after.

REFERENCE

https://data.miraquetemiro.org/sites/default/files/documentos/jamaica.pdf

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z227cj6/revision/3