I just read Dena-kay Martin's column, "Where Will Protestors Be When the Baby is Born?" in the Nov. 17 issue regarding partial-birth abortion and I want to congratulate Martin on taking a brave and informed stance on this issue.
Pro-life advocates (like our brilliant leader President George W. Bush) are so concerned about saving the fetus they ignore the children who are already here or who will be here as a result of this sort of legislation.
Children are the most impoverished group in our country, and while Bush works hard at limiting a woman's right to abortion, he has simultaneously drastically reduced aid to impoverished single women with children. It's as if he is telling these women to "have these children, have these children," while denying them the ability to care for the children after they are born.
Further, I don't view abortion as an issue of morality. It is, and has always been, an issue of privacy. Until very recently, women's bodies were not their own - they were the property of their fathers and husbands. This is evident by viewing the history of rape law in this country. By restricting abortion, we are moving in the opposite direction of progress, telling women that once more their bodies are the properties of legislators, a majority of which are white men.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
