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Prime Minister Gaston Browne
We are appalled at the indifference that your Attorney General’s Chambers has shown to our constitutional challenge to our criminal abortion law.
The reproductive health of poor women and girls is being put at risk while the AG’s Chambers toys with legal procedural niceties.
At least twice (2020 and 2022) your leading legal officer spoke of the need to change the law.
Still, when we wrote to him in 2022 asking for a clarification of the law, we received no reply.
Yet, in 2024, when we approached the High Court, the same authority who voluntarily said the law should be changed, asked the Court to dismiss the challenge because the law had been repealed in 1995. Amazing.
The High Court ruled in favour of the claimants. Now, the AG’s Chambers, determined to obstruct, is digging ever deeper into legal precedent, appealing the Court’s ruling and asking for a new judge.
Really?
If the law was indeed repealed in 1995, then abortion is no longer criminal. Why didn’t the AG simply advise us of this in 2022? Why not do so now?
Hon. Prime Minister, as primus inter pares, where do you stand? Are you also aligned with this convoluted commitment to extending hardship on poor women and girls?
Let’s cut to the chase. If your Cabinet is representative of the people of the state, then there is a reasonable likelihood that about 70% of them have been engaged in arranging at least one abortion with a physician. Why keep this privilege to yourselves?
Is yours a government of the people or a government of the privileged?
2025 is the 30th anniversary of the liberal abortion law in Guyana. The abortion rate has fallen by 20%, the unintended pregnancy rate is lower by 28% (Guttmacher Institute), and most important, maternal mortality has plummeted by 41% (World Bank). Where is our Minister of Health?
Which is a better measure of the sanctity of life, Prime Minister: (i) A criminal law you cannot enforce and a high abortion rate? Or (ii) liberal, legal abortion and far fewer abortions? Is form more important than function?
Which is a better indicator of the moral fabric of society, Hon. Prime Minister: (i) Pride in a criminal law that festers such criminal violence that governments must rely on the state violence of States of Emergency as we have in Jamaica and Trinidad? (ii) Or legal abortion that nurtures the lowest crime rate in a decade as President Irfaan Ali recently announced in Guyana? Is appearance more important than substance?
Why is your AG’s Chambers so determined to prevent us from having our day in Court?
We sincerely hope you will end these wretched shenanigans.
We are pro-choice because we are pro-life.
Sincerely,
ASPIRE
This is very interesting…..I so want to see how this plays out…specifically IF there is a response..
Dear ASPIRE,
You are wasting your time to expect Our Prime Minister or Attorney General to Take A Step in Regard to THIS Important Matter…….
……. Why do I say THIS?
I am SURE that NO ACTION will be taken BECAUSE when the Opportunity was Presented in The PEOPLE’S Parliament to CHANGE The OATH of ALLEGIANCE from “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors, according to law” .,,,To “The People, The Constitution And Laws of ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA” …….. Our GOVERNMENT (hence CABINET) Refused to CHANGE IT’S ALLEGIANCE to US – THE PEOPLE!!!
THIS Change is Such A “LOW HANGING FRUIT” …… requiring ONLY 2/3 of the Sitting Members Of Parliament Present ……. And OUR CABINET MINISTERS Seated In Our Parliament REFUSED to CHANGE THEIR ALLEGIANCE from A British Ruler who Does Not even Know WE EXIST …… To US — THE PEOPLE, Our CONSTITUTION (which is Need of so many CHANGES) And Our LAWS!!!!!
Is THIS The Action of A CARING GOVERNMENT????
Such PERSONS Care only for THEMSELVES AND THOSE IN THEIR Space!!!
Do Not Hold Your Breath ASPIRE ….. You will NEVER Hear from Our Prime Minister On THIS MATTER ……
We CANNOT FORCE What Is Not present in These People. THEY ONLY CARE for THOSE Persons Who Are Of Their Kind ……
…….. I Truly Wish That “We THE PEOPLE” of THIS Nation Would “Wake Up” to THIS TRUTH ….. And QUICKLY Do Something To CHANGE The PRESENT Status Quo!!!
Dear ASPIRE,
You are wasting your time to expect Our Prime Minister or Attorney General to Take A Step in Regard to THIS Important Matter…….
I am SURE that NO ACTION will be taken BECAUSE when the Opportunity was Presented in The PEOPLE’S Parliament to CHANGE The OATH of ALLEGIANCE from “Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors, according to law” .,,,To “The People, The Constitution And Laws of ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA” …….. Our CABINET Ministers Refused to CHANGE IT’S ALLEGIANCE!!!!
THIS Change is Such A “LOW HANGING FRUIT” …… requiring ONLY 2/3 of the Sitting Members Of Parliament Present ……. And OUR CABINET MINISTERS Seated In Our Parliament REFUSED To Swear To US — THE PEOPLE, Our CONSTITUTION, And Our LAWS!!!!!
Is THIS The Action People Who Care???
Such PERSONS Care only for THEMSELVES AND THOSE IN THEIR Space!!!
Do Not Hold Your Breath ASPIRE ….. You will NEVER Hear from the P M on THIS Issue…
…….. I Truly Wish That “We THE PEOPLE” of THIS Nation Would “Wake Up” to THIS TRUTH ….. And QUICKLY Do Something To CHANGE The PRESENT Status Quo!!!