accessing terminations. Incest, rape and danger to a woman's life were cited as the most
significant circumstances under which abortions should be permitted.3
Additionally, the current Minister of Gender, Youth and Child Development, Verna St Rose
Greaves, has promoted the idea of legalizing abortion through a National Gender Policy because
of an epidemic of gender-based violence in Trinidad and Tobago. According to the Judiciary's
Annual Report, 10,817 domestic violence applications were determined for the 2009/2010 law
term and 12,041 applications were determined for the 2010/2011 period.4 These instances of
domestic violence include rape, incest, sexual assault and sexual harassment. The increase of
unwanted pregnancies which result from these offences are not taken into consideration within
the legal framework. Therefore, by broadening the circumstances for which abortion should be
legalized, there would be a reduction of unsafe and illegal abortions.
There are a number of Caribbean Commonwealth jurisdictions which have adopted additional
circumstances in their legal framework for the allowance of abortions. For example, St Vincent
and the Grenadines has permitted abortion in the cases of rape and incest.
In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Indictable Offences Ordinance, which was mostly derived
from the English Offences against the Person Act of 1861, governed the legislation on abortion
until 1988. This Ordinance generally prohibited the performance of abortions, although one
could be performed according to general criminal law principles of necessity in order to save the
life of the pregnant woman. However, in 1977, the Saint Vincent Medical Association proposed
a change in the law for the allowance of a broader range of indications for the medical
termination of pregnancy. This recommendation was integrated into the new Criminal Code of
1988 (Act No. 23) which stipulated that abortion remain generally i llegal. However, a pregnancy
may be lawfully terminated when two medical practitioners are of the opinion formed in good
faith, that (i) continuation of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman
or injury to her physical or mental health, or to that of any of her existing children, greater than if
the pregnancy were terminated; or (ii) there is a substantial risk that, if the child were born, it
3
Population Policy Data. Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United
Nations Secretariat (2010).
4
Maraj, Leiselle. "12,106 domestic violence cases filed". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. 24 November, 2012.
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