Dear Editor,

I see that Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn recently tweeted, “Some things are uncomfortable and seen as the greatest sin, and the loudest voices are heard, but for me poverty is the greatest sin. We can do better for our fellow men. Why don’t we fight for a real cause to end poverty in our society.”

I fully support the view that poverty is a great contributing factor that needs to be tackled in our society today, but if Cuthbert-Flynn is suggesting that her lobby for abortion is her tackling this giant I beg her to go back to the drawing board or, in my Jamaican dialect, “wheel an’ come again”.

Chances are that these women faced with the decisions of abortion were already in poverty, just like approximately 95 per cent of our society, because, really, the so-called middle-income earners are just holding their heads above water. So let’s not fool ourselves here. Poverty exists and will exist with or without a woman aborting her child. So, in the words of Cuthbert-Flynn, let’s fight the real problem in our society without giving women the right to murder innocents.

Let’s consider some facts. The ripple effect of what happens in the psyche of a woman who has undergone this procedure is way more damaging to our society than one more child in this world. Where is the proof that a country has eradicated poverty because it had legalised abortion? But you know what I can show you? Proof after proof of the emotional torture of women who have done this, and the ripple negative effects that do not only impact their lives but the lives of their families, and by extension their communities, and by even more extension their country.

Not only does Cuthbert-Flynn want to put a band-aid on poverty, but also she also purports to give ‘poor’ women (the group she is concerned about) the choice to freely inflict emotional scars on themselves. So, in essence, she is saying since we can’t really impact poverty, and you are already poor, let’s not get any poorer — my emphasis. Just stay as poor as you are now, abort the baby, and allow your decisions to eat you alive while I pray that you get over it, and don’t, God forbid, do some irrational things that now affect us.

Are we really selling this rubbish? But the bigger question is: is the society really buying it?

I charge these politicians: let’s fight the real issues the society has.

I charge the society: realise that you have the real power to change this country.

Julette Daley

daleyju@yahoo.com