New laws needed to protect women if Roe is overturned
After almost 50 years of abortion on demand, we cannot slam the door to abortion access in the faces of women without including new laws that, 1) require that states protect pregnant women from intimidation and abuse, and 2) require information about pregnancy assistance and alternatives to abortion.
Laws restricting abortion protect women. Studies show that some abortions are coerced and that homicide is a leading cause of death of pregnant women in the U.S. Abortion is a life-ending crime against an unborn child, but it is a crime of physical battery on a woman. The crime against the child cannot be separated from the crime against the mother.
Penalties for abortion must be appropriate -- differentiating between medical professionals and laypersons; penalties such as those for homicide by child abuse and battery of the mother, depending on the degree of injury to her.
It is time to make our country pro-woman as well as pro-life.
ELEANOR LYNN WILSON SMITH, R.N. (RETIRED), SANDY SPRINGS
Women are capable of deciding privately about pregnancy
The pro-life people keep pushing an arbitrary concept that life begins at conception. No, when the sperm and egg come together, it is just a cell; it is not even an organ or an organism. It is most certainly not a person. Talk about stretching the English language to absurdity.
If the mother decides that she is not able to give a child a minimally decent life or dignity, why force her to carry the pregnancy and live in misery forever? Society certainly cannot foot the bill for the upbringing of 1 million unwanted children in the U.S. every year. They are likely to grow up in poverty, and misery, get into drugs, or commit crimes.
“Pale, male, stale” state representatives do not represent the women. The former do not understand the intricate biological reproductive processes or being in the shoes of the women they obsess to control. No need to second-guess a woman. She is perfectly capable of making up her mind privately in consultation with her family, doctor and inner self.
RON A. VIRMANI, M.D., CHARLOTTE, N.C.
