Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Grounds on which abortion is permitted:
To save the life of the woman Yes
To preserve physical health Yes
To preserve mental health Yes
Rape or incest Yes
Foetal impairment Yes
Economic or social reasons Yes
Available on request No
Additional requirements:
The procedure must be performed by a medical practitioner in an approved hospital or other establishment and two medical practitioners must certify that the legal grounds for abortion have been met. The pregnant woman’s actual or reasonably foreseeable environment may be taken into account when deciding the legality of an abortion on health grounds.
Government view on fertility level: Too high
Government intervention concerning fertility level: To lower
Government policy on contraceptive use: Direct support provided
Percentage of currently married women using
modern contraception (aged 15-44,* 1988): 55
Total fertility rate (1995-2000): ..
Age-specific fertility rate (per 1,000 women aged 15-19, 1995-2000): ..
Government has expressed particular concern about:
Morbidity and mortality resulting from induced abortion No
Complications of childbearing and childbirth Yes
Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births, 1990):
National ..
Caribbean 400
Female life expectancy at birth (1995-2000): ..
* Including visiting unions.
BACKGROUND
Until 1988 abortion law in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as in most Commonwealth Caribbean countries, was governed by the Indictable Offences Ordinance, which was closely based on the English Offences against the Person Act of 1861. Under this Ordinance, the performance of abortions was generally prohibited, although one could be carried out according to general criminal law principles of necessity to save the life of the pregnant woman.
Moreover, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, like a number of British Commonwealth countries whose legal systems are based on English common law, followed the holding of the 1938 English Rex v. Bourne decision in determining whether an abortion performed for health reasons was lawful. In the Bourne decision, a physician was acquitted of the offence of performing an abortion in the case of a woman who had been raped. The court ruled that the abortion was lawful because it had been performed to prevent the woman from becoming “a physical and mental wreck”, thus setting a precedent for future abortion cases performed on the grounds of preserving the pregnant woman’s physical and mental health.
In 1977, the Minister of Health established a committee to examine the abortion law. The Saint Vincent Medical Association recommended a change in the law to allow for a broad range of indications for the medical termination of pregnancy.
This recommendation was incorporated into the new Criminal Code of 1988 (Act No. 23). Under the Code, abortion is still generally illegal. Any person who, with intent to procure the miscarriage of a woman, whether or not she is pregnant, unlawfully administers or causes her to take any poison or other noxious item, uses force of any kind or uses any other means is guilty of an offence and is subject to imprisonment for 14 years. A pregnant woman who consents to the above or undertakes the same activity with respect to her own miscarriage is subject to seven years’ imprisonment. A person who unlawfully supplies poison or other noxious things for any person or uses force or any instrument, knowing that it will be unlawfully used to induce the miscarriage of any woman, whether or not she is pregnant, is guilty of an offence and is subject to imprisonment for five years.
However, a pregnancy may be lawfully terminated by a medical practitioner in a hospital or other establishment approved by the Senior Medical Officer, when two medical practitioners are of the opinion formed in good faith, that (a) 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 (b) there is a substantial risk that, if the child were born, it would suffer from a physical or mental abnormality so as to be seriously handicapped. The woman’s actual or reasonably foreseeable environment may be taken into consideration in the determination of whether continuation of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. In an emergency, a registered medical practitioner may perform an abortion without the second opinion of another medical practitioner in a place other than an approved hospital or establishment, if he or she is of the opinion formed in good faith that the abortion is immediately necessary to save the life of the woman or to prevent grave permanent injury to her physical or mental health.
Performance of an abortion is also legal if carried out in an approved hospital or other establishment when the pregnancy results from an act of rape or incest, whether or not any person has been charged with the offence of rape or incest.
The Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines considers the rates of population growth and fertility to be too high and believes that the current population growth rate will severely strain the limited natural resources of the country. The Government’s population policy is directed to reducing the rate of population growth to 0.7 per cent by the year 2030. Strongly committed to family planning, the Government seeks to lower fertility levels through a national family planning programme in which the Ministry of Health provides free family planning services in all health-care centres. Adolescent fertility is viewed as a major concern and special emphasis is placed on youth, for whom outreach programmes have been developed. Family planning is a priority in the training of health-care personnel and in health education. The Ministry of Health also conducts an education programme for parents, which includes workshops on sexuality, family planning, family life education and communication skills.
The Government directly supports the provision of modern methods of contraceptives, a wide range of which are available to men and women, including adolescents, regardless of marital status. A 1988 study found the level of modern contraceptive use at 55 per cent. Female sterilization is permitted upon the assurance that the woman will not want more children, with the consent of the spouse and upon consideration of the woman’s age and marital status.
Source: Population Policy Data Bank maintained by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. For additional sources, see list of references.
67