The Editor, Sir:

I am writing to you as the leader of Youth for Life Jamaica, in an attempt to correct an inaccurate assertion made by a picture caption in your paper in reference to this group.

The caption which was published on Monday, March 10, accom-panying a picture of our recent anti-abortion protest march, described Youth for Life Jamaica as "a group of Christian youths drawn mainly from the Roman Catholic Church." It subsequently, in our view, by this description went on to narrow our activities down to a natural reaction flowing merely from conformity to some longstanding tradition.

The statement was highly uninformed as all our documents plainly state "Youth for Life Jamaica is a inter-denomination Christian youth group that has arisen in response to the recommendations of the Abortion Policy Review Advisory Group for the legalisation of abortion in Jamaica." Not even one of our leaders is Roman Catholic and if asked, Roman Catholic officials will surely make clear that the large numbers represented did not come from their churches.

Tainting of our identity

Let no one misunderstand our hasty and firm denunciation of this tainting of our identity, unintentional though it may have been. We are not anti-Roman Catholic. Still, we are not Roman Catholic and I am sure a consideration of the implications of this assertion will justify our response.

It is our mandate to present to Jamaica a unified and distinctly youth response to this abortion crisis; this blatant travesty of justice and consequence of a culture that glorifies immorality.

We simply will not allow Jamaica to believe that this is only a Roman Catholic hot-button issue, and so minimise it to the vast majority of secular, indifferent and irreligious consciences. We will not allow all our serious concerns, our well-researched claims, and justifiable opposition on behalf of the most defenceless and most butchered of our society to be undermined, overlooked and downplayed by the belief that we are acting as mindless agents of a Church's tradition.

No! We stand firm in our claim that abortion is an issue that affects all Jamaicans just as much as the shortcomings in our society that first give cause to it. Abortion reflects the true heart of a society like oozing puss reveals the true state of a sore. No matter how bandaged and well clad we present ourselves to the world, we cannot stand as a nation if injustice is being meted out against any class of citizens, black, white, rich, poor, born or unborn.

So finally, let me clarify for all Jamaica and the leaders of this nation who exactly went marching on Saturday, March 8, who went nearly two miles in the hot sun from Merl Grove to Ardenne High School, pleading and chanting "Let Us Live on behalf of the voiceless among us."

Of about 500 youths, the majority being under 30, at least 100 came from St Ann, and about 50 from Youth With a Mission in Montego Bay. They came from a number of non-denominational churches in Kingston, from Portmore, from Manchester even as far as Savanna-la-Mar. They were students of the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology. There were concerned parents, gospel Reggae artistes, and a few from the Roman Catholic Church.

I am, etc.,

ANDREW WILDES

www.youthforlifeja.com

Youth for Life Jamaica

Kingston