By Deepa BHOOKHUN

I bet you?ve heard the word abortion enough times these past days to last you a lifetime. And I guess you?re sick of it and don?t want to read any more on abortion and its consequences or whether or not it should be rendered legal.

Well, I?m sorry if you feel this way. At least it?s only the word that?s bothering you. For some, abortion has come to mean nightmare.

But still, according to MP Danielle Perrier, ?it is too easy to have an abortion.? I guess Mrs Perrier thinks that when a woman falls pregnant, she sits at her kitchen table and in between having breakfast and reading the morning papers, she attempts to make up her mind whether to keep her baby or neatly dispose of it. Maybe she?ll phone a friend to help her decide. A bit like when you?re not sure if you should buy the divine black evening gown you saw the other day in a shop. And then because a decision has to be made, the woman decides rather carelessly to go for the abortion. So she drives herself to the nearby clinic in a back street somewhere and breezily walks in and tells the receptionist:?Hello there, I would like an abortion please. Gift wrapped.?

And they tell you they are in politics because they care about the downtrodden! I guess that?s why a law that dates way back to 1838 is still ruining so many women?s lives. Poor women?s lives. Oh wait, it gets better. Forget about Mrs Perrier disparaging and insulting comments- after all, she has no decision-making powers, thank God. But guess what else? The people who are governing us have never discussed the matter between themselves. So says MP Nita Deerpalsing in an interview published by l?express last Saturday. Not one majority MP has deemed the matter important enough to raise it. Not now, not prior to elections.

Yet, according to the MFPA, it affects 20,000 women a year. Poor women. Women who will not speak out because they are ashamed of what they have done, women who will bear forever the emotional scars of having had to abort in disgusting circumstances in the back streets because they couldn?t afford to do otherwise.

Some have paid dearly for this heart wrenching decision. Still more will continue to pay with their lives simply because our politicians didn?t think of raising the matter. They forgot. There were more important things to attend to. Like getting elected.

The Prime minister quoted an advice the Mahatma gave to Jawarharlal Nehru, the other day, to the effect that when one wasn?t sure if a decision taken was the right one, ?think of the most deprived person and if that decision benefits him, it is the right one.? It warmed my heart to hear a prime minister quote this particular advice but clearly Navin Ramgoolam has not entirely made his this motto. He should, if he really cares like he says he does.

Why has this situation remained unchanged for so long? Despite the tragedies and in spite of the indignities? I think I can chance a guess. Politicians are either cowards or they simply don?t give a damn.

And I don?t know which is worse.