Anger at women’s health legislation is misplaced

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Anger at women’s healthlegislation is misplaced

In her article, “Why herd women’s rights issue to Ag Committee?” Deena Bess Sherman informs us of her outrage that women be treated like livestock. The house bill she is referring to, HB3156, asks that the same health standards that apply to other surgical centers, including veterinary hospitals, would also be upheld at abortion clinics. Sherman’s outrage is misplaced here. Did she not hear of the horrors of Kermit Gosnell’s clinic in Philadelphia, where women indeed were treated worse than livestock from lack of regulation? Surely we should be outraged that abortion clinics have not been held to the strictest standards already.

She also states that “most abortions are the result of heart-wrenching decisions that women and their doctors must make as a result of rape, incest or medical issues that threaten the mother’s health.” The fact is that the overwhelming majority of abortions, 98 percent, are related to issues of personal choice. Less than 2 percent are because of the exceptions, rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s health. It is because of statements like Sherman’s that people believe this widespread myth about abortion.

Sherman states, “I understand wanting to make abortions a thing of the past — I’d like that too.” Of course this is followed by all the reasons that abortion must be safe and legal because we live in a world where “women’s rights” are a separate thing from human rights. Abortion pits a mother’s rights against those of her child. That’s why it is heart-wrenching indeed.

I would ask that in the future Ms. Sherman would look up the facts before objecting to such a reasonable piece of legislation that is designed to protect women’s health.

April Scheidler

Aurora

If only self-defense had wonthe day before shooting

“I think that’s b.s. I get offended when people say that. It’s like blaming the victim. If only she had a gun ... or if she had outrun the bullets,” says the grief-stricken mother, Mary Kay Mace. How could anyone blame the victims when existing law prohibits self-defense? She should be forgiven for misunderstanding blame, as she continues in her profound grief. I wish in vain that self-defense would have won the day before her daughter lost her life. How much more perverse is it to blame the would-be heroes who take up the responsibility to neutralize such a grave situation? I would like to offer a glimpse of another woman who has earned the right, testifying of the loss of her parents, in this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4069761537893819675#

Ron Vann

Aurora