The severity of the global outbreak of the Zika virus (ZIKV) and its potential threat to newborn babies has sparked international debates about abortion, and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Jamaica did not miss the opportunity to share its views on the controversial topic.
A report from the British Broadcasting Corporation earlier this year highlighted a group of Brazilian lawyers who asked the Supreme Court to allow abortion for women who had contracted the virus, putting their unborn child at risk of developing a serious birth defect.
According to health practitioners and researchers, babies born to mothers who had contracted ZIKV were at great risk of developing microcephaly, an abnormal growth of the brain and stunting of the growth of the head of the foetus arising from infection in the first months of pregnancy. Babies who develop microcephaly in the womb may not live to full term, may be born prematurely, may be stillborn, or may survive, but with life-long disability.
