Dear Editor:
While I understand those who feel the life of a fetus is sacred, I disagree with those who would place a higher value on that potential life than the actual life of a person who could die by carrying this pregnancy to full term. A woman should have the ultimate right to determine what takes place in and to her body.
How many men would be up in arms if women proposed legislation to prevent them from self-determination related to their prostate? What if that legislation stated that men could not treat or remove a prostate — even if inaction could threaten their life — because lawmakers viewed the prostate as a living organism worth protecting at all costs?
Proponents who are passing laws to deny abortions under any circumstances ignore the psychological scars thrust on a woman or child resulting from a rape, and worse, committed by a family member. People insisting all women should carry a pregnancy to full term rarely step up to adopt or offer financial aid. They also ignore the cost of pre-birth medical expenses and the financial burden to a family or single parent who is already struggling to make ends meet. What might that child face in the strained foster care system, if not selected for adoption early on?
It’s clear that the majority of those Supreme Court justices who declared that their religious views would not influence their judicial duties were at the least not honest with themselves, or us.
These issues require an individual case review rather than a sweeping general application denying needed services. Read the pulse of the American majority on this subject, who support a woman’s rights, and uphold Roe v. Wade.
Robert M. Horsting