Editor, The Times,
Abortion supporters usually try to defend legalized abortion by painting a picture of women pregnant through rape, incest, women with life-threatening health problems or faced with the birth of a handicapped child.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement in 2001 entitled Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. In this they state: Operations, treatments and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child. The purpose of the treatment was not to kill the child, but to save the life of the mother.
Why is it that these abortion enthusiasts use these “hard cases” to justify the 93 percent of abortions that are done just for birth control?
If their concern really was for women in dire circumstances, they’d be willing to limit abortion to those dire circumstances. But they aren’t willing to limit abortion in this way, so clearly, they are using our sympathy for these women to cover up the behavior of women who have abortions for the most common reason: they don’t want to be pregnant.
Women who have had abortions should be treated with compassion and understanding.
We must work together to build a culture of life in which every human being is valued and respected, from conception to natural death.
Kenneth Beck Sr.
Blackshear
