Arguing Abortion

To the Editors:

Yes, a woman has the right to choose what happens to her body [April 6]. She makes that choice when she decides to have intercourse and when she does or does not use birth control. Pregnancy is the result of her choice.

Nancy Bohm

Gennansville, Pa.

Given the choice, a large percentage of pro-choice advocates would never have an abortion. We simply want the freedom to make that choice.

Nancy J. Fredette

El Paso

Any pro-lifer who hasn't adopted at least one child more than he is financially or emotionally capable of caring for should keep his opinions to himself.

Al Rosie

Detroit

I was one of those unwanted babies. Fortunately, because abortions were not so readily available in the 1950s, I was allowed to live. I became part of a wonderful family that was thrilled to get a child. I cannot thank my natural mother enough for allowing me the gift of life and all its experiences.

Peggy Hage

St. Paul

Although it is often suggested, adoption isn't a solution. It's no problem finding homes for cute, cuddly, alert infants. But what about babies who are racially mixed, mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, brain-damaged, or children too old to be wanted?

Janet L. Spellerberg

Columbus

Determining what life is and when it exists has been a subject philosophers and theologians have struggled with for centuries. I doubt that the Congress of the U.S. will come up with the answer. Consequently, it is regrettable that the pro-lifers are threatening opponents with political ruin. They would probably support Satan himself if he ran as a pro-lifer against a pro-choice candidate.

Donald G. Johnson, M.D.

Bar Mills, Me.

The right-to-life activists claim that they are working to strengthen the family. Does a 14-year-old child on welfare with an unwanted offspring constitute the kind of family they have in mind?

Margot Close

Keene, N.H.

Why should I, a taxpayer, help finance an abortion for an unmarried woman or an irresponsible married woman who chose to make herself susceptible to pregnancy? Should I be expected to help pay for their losing gambles?

Alice E. Glendening

Stuart, Fla.

Ideally, most people want to raise a child in a loving, comfortable home with both parents. The truth is that not all children are wanted and cared for, and the ultimate responsibility falls on the taxpayers.

Patty B. Hall

Pampa, Texas

The people who support a "Human Life Amendment" are anti-life. A young girl, whose future lies ahead of her, or a 40-year-old grandmother should not have to have her life destroyed because of rape or incest, nor should she be forbidden to do something about it.

Melissa R. Vance

South Hadley, Mass.

The arguments that people should have freedom of choice and that one person's morality should not be imposed upon another are the same as those once used to defend slavery. Now they are cited in the defense of abortion. The unborn have the right to life even in a pluralistic society.

Ronald Van Zomeren

Hollandale, Minn.

The antiabortionists equate the morality of slavery with the morality of abortion. Slaves were deserving of equal protection under the law because there was no question about whether they were alive. The fetus is not separate from its mother. It is not a life but a potential life.

Antiabortionists pose the question: What if Einstein's mother had had an abortion? I ask: What if Hitler's mother had had one?

Pamela Browne

New York City

Civilized nations have always given human life the benefit of the doubt. Even if proabortionists are not convinced by the overwhelming evidence showing life in the early stages of pregnancy, common decency demands favoring life.

Sidney A. Lange, S.J.

Tampa

Just what do the pro-lifers plan to do with all of those unwanted children after they are born? Cut off their food stamps and school lunches and let them starve? Or maybe they plan to force the father to accept some responsibility, even though he may be a 14-year-old boy or a "prominent citizen."

Fay M. Langston

San Angela, Texas

I have counseled many women with unplanned pregnancies, both before and after the Supreme Court decision of 1973. I have presented all options available to them: adoption, foster care, single parenthood, marriage, and safe, legal abortion. Often women who claim they do not believe in abortion choose abortion. They rationalize their decision by saying that abortion is the best decision--just this one time.

Patricia A. Greenawald, R.N.

Harrisburg

Is the "spirit of a pluralistic society" so worthy of veneration that we must offer it human sacrifice?

Thomas J. Ahern Jr.

Chapel Hill, N.C.

It is not a question of whether one believes in abortion or not. As a registered nurse, I saw, when abortions were illegal, the mutilated bodies and corpses of women who in desperation were forced to resort to butchers. Abortion has always existed and will continue to exist. It is something that cannot be legislated.

Jan Doyle

Hollywood

Price of Success

Your article "How Japan Does It" [March 30] is as insensitive to the Japanese system's effect on the individual. Although group orientation and consensus management have achieved great success, they have exacted a terrible price. A lifetime employment contract provides job security, but the worker must give up the freedom to choose what he wants to do. Even his family must take second place to the company. In Western eyes, this lack of consideration for one's own self is unnatural.

Kapkyung K. Seo

Honolulu

Masada vs. Jonestown

In the story "The Networks Get Religion" [April 6], Richard Corliss calls Eleazar Ben Yair of Masada an "honorable" Jim Jones. The bravery of the Jews who chose death over capture at Masada can never be compared with the paranoid fear of the "damned" at Guyana. People look to Masada for inspiration. Can Mr. Corliss say the same about the carnage that took place at Guyana?

Leon R. Ohana

Jamaica Estates, N. Y.

Badge of Courage

Your American Scene article about Colonel Robert Shaw and the black regiment serving in the Civil War [April 6] failed to mention Sergeant William H. Carney. Carney was a black soldier in Shaw's 54th Regiment. On the night the colonel was killed, when the color bearer also fell, Carney seized the Stars and Stripes and moved to the front of the attack. After the order to retreat was sounded, Sergeant Carney, wounded three times, struggled back to the Union lines on one knee, still holding the flag high.

For his heroism, Carney, who had been born a slave in Norfolk, became the first black to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Charles R. Coats

Louisville

Barefoot Boy with Cheek

Frank Trippett's Essay "The Young Adult" [April 6] must not go unchallenged. The youth of today have chosen not to be looked upon as a phase, as the heroic hypocrites of the '60s were. Changing the world will take more than going barefoot and carrying signs. The '60s generation gave up their cause and were absorbed into nothingness. Theirs is not a hard act to follow. It deserves not to be followed. We are smarter.

Leonard J. Artigliere

Easton, Pa.

Dumping Oranges

Rotting oranges in California [April 6] represent a criminal nutritional waste. In addition, unimaginative profiteers overlook the potential of ethanol from the fruit for vehicle and home-heating fuel.

Lawrence Libby

Wethersfield, Conn.

Your article "California's Rotting Shame" reminds me of the Depression days, when the Fruit Growers Association was dumping oranges into San Pedro Bay to keep up the price.

We who were unemployed and hungry dived into the waters to retrieve the fruit. Growers got wind of what was going on; they soaked the oranges with kerosene so that we could not eat them.

Charles L. La Rue

River Edge, N.J.

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