Dear Editor,

On hearing the call by the Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna for the right of women to have control over their bodies to do abortions, I cannot keep silent in the face of lies and death.

I am a 22-year-old graduate of St George’s College. I hold seven CSEC subjects and six CAPE subjects. I am Catholic and currently studying for the priesthood in the Dominican Republic, which comes with learning Spanish.

I mention those “earthly achievements” to tell you that if my mother had aborted me these would not have been possible.

My mother was pregnant at the age of 16 with my older sister. By the time she was 18, she was pregnant again, yes, with me. She was told by many people to do an abortion; in Jamaican words “dash it weh”.

At the time of her pregnancy with me she was attending nursing school, and was even told by those who were to preserve life to kill the baby because it would have held her career back.

What saved her? What changed her mind? I asked her these questions when she told me the story. She said it was her Catholic faith and her profession.

Minister Lisa Hanna, probably you don’t believe in human development, and probably you don’t know what are women’s rights. But women’s rights are about not destroying life in the womb. Women’s rights include the right to know the dignity of each person, no matter the circumstances.

I am very disappointed in Minister Hanna, as my youth minister, to advocate the ending of a young life.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to do voluntary work among Jamaica’s young people. Yes, to bathe, feed, sing with, and even to model for them at the homes of the Mustard Seed Communities, Missionaries of the Poor, John Basco’s, Alpha Boys’ School, and the Missionaries of Charity Sisters.

Please, Minister Lisa Hanna, defend life; every life is worth living.

Roger R Goodwill

Seminario Santo Tomas de Aquino

Santo Domingo

roger_goodwill14@hotmail.com