Letters to the Editor: Karen Bass is right, abortion is a local issue
My husband and I believe that abortion should be legal, but also that we believe that all other aspects of life should be protected equally under the law. Our children don’t go to playgroup to hear music all day, they join us in our church to get a chance to hear a message of hope and love for others.
What we do disagree on, however, is our personal view as to which of these rights should apply to one group of people – women – while the rest are relegated to the status of property or non-entities.
I believe that anyone who has had two or more sexual partners has had two or more encounters with the potential to create life – that’s an important fact, but that doesn’t mean that everything involving reproduction should be controlled by the same set of principles.
For example, the issue of whether a man should be able to divorce his wife if he finds out she had an abortion as far as I’m concerned belongs in a different category than the question of whether a woman who has had one abortion and another who is still in the process of completing her pregnancy should lose her right to reproductive freedom – as does the question of whether a woman should be fired from her job if she’s been having an abortion or the question of whether a woman should be denied hospital care because she was late to the procedure.
When it comes to abortion, the state should not be in business. But my husband and I believe that government should not be in the business of deciding whether other rights should apply to women.
As it is, the abortion industry and the people it works with have made a big mess of things.
What they think is a human being is simply another piece of property. They claim ownership over our lives. They also use our reproductive processes as a way to rob us of our freedom.
The laws should be made by the people. Government should not be involved in these kinds of issues.