Keep abortion safe, legal to preserve lives
Thank you, John Nolan, for your thoughtful letter on Roe v. Wade. There are fundamental differences, however, between bans on abortion and slavery. The decision to ban slavery affects the property and social rights of slaveholders, but, other than divestiture, does not compel them to any other act or obligation; he may not own slaves, but no responsibility is cast upon the former slave owner.
A decision to ban abortion, on the other hand, places an enormous burden on the woman compelled to carry a pregnancy: her health and even her life may be placed in serious jeopardy, and as any parent will testify, a child comes attached with financial, social and emotional responsibilities for the mother to bear for decades.
Whether or not a woman will bear these risks and burdens is not a decision that the state can make. Whether or not the fetus within her has rights of personhood is a decision that only the woman bearing that fetus can make. She alone has this right because she alone will bear the risks and responsibilities.
Moral issues aside, there is the practical consideration that there will always be women who, for a variety of reasons, choose not to carry a pregnancy to term, even if abortion entails breaking the law and resorting to primitive, dangerous methods. Better to abort safely and legally to preserve one life, than force the determined woman to put her own health and life in jeopardy and lose two lives.
To reduce abortions, promote contraception and comprehensive sex education.
Stuart Anderson
Otego
Haiti earthquake disaster not surprise
Because I consider Haiti a colony of the U.S., in which 20 percent of the population exploits the 80 percent who live below the poverty line, the country has no reserves with which to prepare for natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. If 80 percent of the population exploited the 20 percent that has money, the country would have reserves of bulldozers, water, food, medical supplies and fuel with which to confront disasters.
But the U.S. would not allow that. Instead, the U.S. considers it worthwhile to give more than $100 million in aid to help little Haiti in the recent earthquake.
If the majority of a population doesn't own its own country, you can expect catastrophes. Nobody who lives on the dole can protect themselves. Haiti lives on the American dole.
Martin Wank
Oneonta
