Barbados' number one cause of death (killer) is the abortion.
Barbados' death rate might be significantly higher than is lead to believe, because of the number of abortions being performed on the island.
The death statistics according to the CIA World Fact Book is 8.61 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.).
This statistic does not take into consideration the number of abortions performed at private doctors offices or through the use of over the counter medications, or even those acquired through "back alley abortions".
This is because the unborn child in Barbados is not seen as a person.
Recently in Texas the appellate court upheld its ruling that affirms the personhood of an unborn child. The ruling states that "'person' means an individual", and 'individual' may refer to "an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth" and "'death' includes for an individual who is an unborn child, the failure to be born alive."
In Denver Colorado over 70 physicians signed a statement saying personhood begins at fertilization. As this definition is not adopted in Barbados our statistics report the death rate as being much, much lower than it should.
It has been stated in many research reports that heart disease in Barbados is the number one killer, but this is changing as abortion rates in Barbados are on the increase. An abortion in Barbados can now be more liberally acquired.
In these tough economic times, couples are opting for abortions, because of the fear of not being financially sound.
Abortion has become the number one killer in Barbados because the dynamics of the household has change. In today's world, women are becoming the bread winners in many homes, and therefore don't have the time to remain pregnant.
The termination of pregnancy policy of Barbados allows an abortion on the following grounds:
| 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 |
Authorization by a physician is required when gestation is 12 weeks or less. If gestation is of more than 12 but less than 20 weeks' duration, the procedure must be authorized by two physicians. If gestation is of more than 20 weeks' duration, authorization of three physicians is required.
The woman must receive counseling prior to the procedure. All abortions must be performed by a medical practitioner. When gestation is of more than 12 weeks' duration, the abortion must be performed in a Government-approved hospital.
Under the grounds mentioned above, a lady can go to her doctor and state economic and social reasons for wanting the abortion, and the doctor will proceed. Since an abortion is so easy to acquire in Barbados, it is ironic that the Government speaks of a dwindling population, and has given this as one of the reasons for the influx of Guyanese nationals into the island as a means of increasing population size.
The abortion laws were significantly liberalized in Barbados in 1983, with the introduction of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (Act No. 4 of 11 February 1983) and the 1983 Regulations to that Act.
The Government had been concerned with the high morbidity and mortality resulting from unsafe illegal abortions. Prior to 1983, abortion legislation was based on the Offences Against the Person Act of 1868 (sections 61 and 62), which permitted abortion only to save the life of the pregnant woman, and the application of the Rex v. Bourne decision, which interpreted the 1868 Act to allow abortion to preserve the physical and mental health of the pregnant woman.
Although these laws seek to catch the horse after it has left the stable. What is needed is for the society to be educated on the responsibilities of having sex, and to be enlightened to the truth that the killing of the unborn person is something which should not be taken likely. More counseling needs to be done for the couple involved and by extension the families involved, in order to quell the death toll on the defenseless unborn person.
Ladies should not be able to acquire medications for the termination of pregnancies without seeing her physician as certain test might need to be performed before carrying out an abortion.