Richard Lightbourn

TWO local advocacy groups have condemned Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn’s proposal for the state-sponsored sterilisation of women as “archaic, barbaric and dangerous”, charging that the suggestion is “frighteningly reminiscent” of sterilisation policies used against black people internationally in the 1960s.

Citizens for Constitutional Equality (CCE), in a statement, said Mr. Lightbourn’s proposal to “target young, black, poor women” in order to reduce the number of children being born is akin to “policies used against black South Africans under apartheid and African-Americans in Mississippi and Alabama” at the height of racial tensions in the 1960s.

The group also said Mr. Lightbourn’s proposed policy is “state enforced violence against women,” which the group said is a “perverse violation of human rights” that demonstrates Mr. Lightbourn’s “utter lack of understanding and awareness of what gender equality, women’s empowerment, agency and human rights really means”.

Meanwhile, non-profit organisation Bahamas Women’s Watch (BWW) said Mr. Lightbourn’s  proposed policy “highlights an absolute disrespect and contempt for women’s rights” and serves “to explain the lack of advancement on core women’s empowerment issues” in the country.

The group said instead of “scapegoating poor women as the reason for the social ills in the Bahamas,” Mr. Lightbourn should “consider the unequal power relations and the exploitation of women in the inner city” as well as the fact that “many women are left to raise children and care for children on their own.”

CCE also said Mr. Lightbourn’s proposal “suggests that he absolves men of any burden in this” and said it is “obscene to blame the most vulnerable of our society for its problems.”

The strongly-worded statements by the two groups came days after Mr. Lightbourn proposed at the Free National Movement’s convention that the country adopt legislation that mandates unwed mothers with more than two children have their “tubes tied” in an effort to curtail the country’s social ills.

Mr. Lightbourn indicated that children born in unstable family situations often grow up to participate in criminal activities. To offset that occurrence, the shadow attorney general posited that it was necessary to consider “adopting the lead of several countries in the world,” the result of which he said would be less children, essentially reducing the burden of the state in terms of social care, education and employment.

“Implicit in Mr. Lightbourn’s proposal is a policy to target young, black, poor woman in order to reduce the number of children being born; reduce the number of children in the schools and reduce the number of people seeking unemployment,” CCE said. “This policy proposal of sterilisation is frighteningly reminiscent of the policies used against black South Africans in Mississippi and Alabama, as recently as the 1960s. This is not who we are as a people.”

CCE added: “To execute such a policy requires a coercive and discriminatory approach against a certain set of women in our society by the state. This compounds the reality that many women in the Bahamas become pregnant because of coercion, rape, inclusive of marital rape, incest and other forms of violations of their human rights, such as poverty.

“Mr. Lightbourn’s proposal displays an utter lack of understanding and awareness of what gender equality, women’s empowerment, agency and human rights really means.”

BWW, meanwhile, said Mr. Lightbourn’s proposal “must be strongly condemned and outrightly rejected by everyone.” The group said as a political leader, Mr. Lightbourn should be informed and aware of the “critical need for the state to play a significant role in public education and socialization around issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

BWW added: “Instead of scapegoating poor women as the reason for the social ills in the Bahamas, he should consider the unequal power relations and the exploitation of women in the inner city and the fact that many women are left to raise children and care for children on their own. It suggests that he absolves men of any burden in this and it is obscene to blame the most vulnerable of our society for its problems.”

Mr. Lightbourn’s controversial comments were made on the second night of the convention at the Melia resort, and have since gone viral on social media with many vilifying the parliamentarian. His comments, as well as the subsequent criticisms, have made headlines in regional media outlets, such as the Jamaica Observer.

Mr. Lightbourn offered a public apology for his statements the following day, stating that making them was “an extremely poor decision on my part.”

“It was never my intention to offend anyone but to speak to the need for effective parenting and the support for a strong family structure which will go a long way toward solving many of our country’s social ills,” he said in his written apology.

“It is a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body.”

By Nico Scavella, Tribune Staff Reporter

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