The gift of life

I write in answer to Isabel Stabile’s examples of two women who had no regrets after having an abortion (January 17).

To the unfortunate woman who decided to end her pregnancy on the advice that her baby would not survive I have this story. While walking with my daughter in London we ran into a friend of hers with the most beautiful four-year-old child. My daughter later told me that the woman we had just met had been told that an ultrasound had revealed a birth defect, and she was advised to terminate her pregnancy. She however refused to do so and eventually gave birth to an entirely healthy and beautiful little girl.

To the 16-year-old who had an abortion and has no regrets today, I say that you reached the age of 40 only because your mother allowed you your gift of life. Lucky you.

Maureen Borg – St Julian’s

Take the vaccine as soon as it is offered

We should be worried about the COVID-19 infection and not the vaccine. Photo: Shutterstock.com

The Sunday Times of Malta (January 17) carried two very useful features about so-called ‘Long COVID’, which refers to ill-health symptoms such as fatigue, memory problems, cough, breathlessness, muscle aches and hair loss that may persist for some months, and sometimes up to a year, after being pronounced ‘cured’ from the viral infection. A local scientific study of these cases was also announced.

The results of a follow-up study on more than 50,000 ‘cured’ COVID-19 infections just published in the UK shows that 30 per cent of these patients had to be readmitted to hospital and that 12 per cent died.

The COVID-19 infection produces inflammatory damage in most organs, including the brain (loss of smell, brain fog, sometimes delirium) and, in the overweight and diabetic (many people don’t know they’ve got early diabetes), the immune system doesn’t work pro­perly and overreacts, resulting in more disseminated organ damage.

COVID-19 is no pussy cat.

People frightening others about taking the vaccine are therefore doing a lot of harm to the common good. Apart from slight, very short-term symptoms in a minority of the vaccine recipients, the approved vaccines are safe for practically everybody. The vulnerable are the ones who need it most. It is very easy to instil doubt and anxiety with inaccurate media claims.

It is the COVID-19 infection you should be seriously concerned about, not the vaccine. The UK is now seeing an increasing number of serious complications in COVID-19 patients in their 30s and 40s needing hospitalisation. The emergence of COVID-19 variants is another worry. Take the vaccine as soon as it is offered.

Albert Cilia-Vincenti – Former scientific delegate to the European Medicines Agency, Attard

Clutching at straws

In her letter ‘No abortion regrets’ (January 17) Isabel Stabile tries to strengthen her argument in favour of abortion by the fact that many women say they do not regret having had an abortion.

She quotes unsigned no-regret letters by two women and has no empathy for the many other women who spend a lifetime regretting what they did. In response to the no-regret argument, one could confidently state that many murderers do not regret their actions unless they are caught, shamed and punished.

There is no genuine, ethically and legally acceptable argument in favour of the deliberate destruction of human life, including abortion motivated by convenience disguised as care or mercy.

John B Pace – Victoria

COVID-19 in UK and Malta

The UK has done very badly with COVID-19 because the government didn’t act strongly enough in time, and then blew with every populist and economic wind over restrictions, changing them over and over again. This led to a lot of people losing faith in the government and not listening to its advice.

In general, I’ve been so impressed with Malta and the Maltese since I came from England to live here early last month, with rules and restrictions being far simpler and more consistent than in the UK, and hence respected, and real social pressure to wear masks and sanitise hands.

In the last few days, however, I have noticed a slight slipping with mask-wearing (literally, in many cases, down from the nose) and more people using the excuse in the street of eating or smoking (and really, are these permissible exemptions?).

With the festive season over Christmas and New Year having raised case numbers, the threat of the new variant of the virus and carnival season fast approaching, it’s vital that we all keep each other up to the mark.

I can hear the midday air raid siren clearly from my house, and every day I think: “Don’t lose it, Malta. Keep strong and zero tolerant. This is not a drill.”

Frances Bower – Valletta

Women in an impossible situation

I refer to the letter by Tony Mifsud entitled ‘Traumatic effects of abortions’, (January 10).

Over the past months, as a member of Doctors for Choice, I have heard heart-wrenching stories of women who suffer under Malta’s abortion ban. But the biggest heartbreak I face is reading insensate and conservative opinion pieces, publicly shared, uncovering a callous misunderstanding of the abortion issue.

However, Mr Mifsud, you are right. There are negative psychological impacts on women who get abortions; but not in the way you might ima­gine. These impacts are not brought about by their decisions, but by the cruel phrase you claimed somebody used, namely “You mean like a baby killer?!” Such a phrase, like many others, is thrown at women who just had to make the hardest decision of their lives; women in an impossible situa­tion they never thought they would find themselves in; a decision which should be made in a private room with her doctor; a room where the government has no seat.

Saveria Cremona, MD, Member, Doctors for Choice, Liverpool, UK

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