Letters

New Tactics in the Abortion Divide

Crisis pregnancy centers aim to give women all the facts needed as they consider an abortion. But is this guerrilla-like army of mostly Christian charities providing kind counsel or ideological pressure? Whichever side of the debate readers came down on, most seemed ready for more open dialogue

Extremists on both sides of the abortion debate make the issue confusing and difficult [Feb. 26]. I was born out of wedlock, the product of a date rape. We should remember that there are lives involved. Both fetuses and mothers can grow up to be productive members of society. Abortion is too often treated like an avoidance option instead of a last resort. I for one am glad I was not aborted.

BRYAN T. SCHMIDT St. Louis, Mo.

Your look into the crisis-pregnancy-center (CPC) movement showed that antiabortion centers in many cases are forthright about their services and respectful to the pregnant women who enter their doors. At the same time, I am glad you also included a story about a particular CPC that led a woman to believe it provided abortion services only to berate and cajole her not to have an abortion. While many CPCs are sincere, what I call "counterfeit pregnancy centers" also exist. The abortion issue is already contentious enough. Deceit and misinformation only serve to inflame both sides and emotionally damage pregnant women exploring their options. I have introduced legislation to crack down on false advertising related to abortion services, and I hope it is something that can be supported by everyone, regardless of people's positions on abortion.

CAROLYN B. MALONEY MEMBER OF CONGRESS Washington

After describing a scenario in which a woman went to a center for information and supposedly did not get all the facts, a Planned Parenthood official quoted in your report stated, "That's taking someone's life and playing a really dangerous game with it." Whose life does he believe is in danger? It is a significant injustice to pretend that there is only one life at stake in these cases. Pregnancy centers shouldn't misinform women--and neither should abortion providers.

MAGGIE NICHOLS Deltona, Fla.

Your cover story on abortion was a good attempt to walk the middle line between two sides of what can be deemed an irreconcilable issue. It is encouraging to see the two sides of the abortion debate willing to sit down and talk inoffensively about their serious differences. But there was no mention of the disproportionate number of minority fetuses being aborted. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that three times as many black fetuses as white ones are aborted. This alarming ratio continues to grow even as the total number of abortions declines. What accounts for the silence on this issue?

MADELYN HIGBY Towaco, N.J.

Thank you for your excellent article about crisis pregnancy centers. But since when has informed choice become a "guerrilla" tactic? Abortion providers fear that a mother informed of her child's development will change her mind and decide not to abort. I hope your cover picture is sufficiently intriguing to pregnant women that they will investigate, as much as possible, that precious life inside them. Ultrasound is not a "stealth tactic." It is a window into the womb that reveals undeniable life.

KATHIE THOMPSON Wilsonville, Ore.

I am part of the post-Roe v. Wade generation that is extremely conflicted about abortion. I am pro-choice but wish the antagonists would work together to bring down the rate of abortion or at least respect the other viewpoint. They fall prey to name calling, fallacious arguments and misinformation, and both lose the trust of confused women.

ALLISON HOWARD West Friendship, Md.

Neither side of the abortion debate deals with grief. The anti-choice faction, including CPCs, hopes to fill women with guilt to prevent them from making a truly informed decision, and the pro-choice camp often fails to provide healing for those who grieve following their procedures. Neither position recognizes that when grief is allowed healthy expression, most women will begin to understand their sorrow, integrate it into their lives and eventually feel better. Grief is a noble human emotion that enables us to cope with the anguish of loss that accompanies life's most difficult decisions.

PERRY-LYNN MOFFITT, CHAIR PREGNANCY LOSS SUPPORT PROGRAM NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN New York City

Face to Face

RE "Faces of Iran" [Feb. 26], in which you pictured Iranians from various walks of life: There ought to be a law that every major news outlet must run features like this anytime the U.S. government openly contemplates military action. If we think we know what is best for another nation, then we ought to be able to look its ordinary citizens straight in the eyes before killing them for their own good. And please spare those people speeches about how it is only their government we hate, not them. If the whole world operated by that standard, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Britain and President George W. Bush's U.S. would have been invaded a good four years ago.

ALICE PFEIFER Hays, Kans.

I was interested to see the portraits of Iranians by Paolo Woods. I am an 11-year-old whose only images of Middle East life have been of people fighting or working at low-paying jobs. I was pleased to see that Iranians do much the same as we do in the West. They have jobs as dentists and teachers, and they engage in leisure activities like swimming. The illustrations were particularly helpful in changing my views.

NIKHITA MOUDGIL Telford, England

Worldly Wisdom

In the report of Afghan warlord Haji Bashar Noorzai [Feb. 19], you said that "the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001." The world didn't change. Global warming is still here, the poor are poor, the rich are rich, Africans are dying of AIDS, and malaria kills millions of children every year. The "world" changed for a fraction of the earth's population, mostly Americans, their allies and those who have been suffering from their attacks. Please be less ethno- and egocentric. The U.S. is not the world.

IZABELLA BRODOWSKA Montreal

Taking the Sunday Collection

RE The article about Roman Catholic clergy stealing from parishioners [Feb. 26]: You reported that, after the discovery of embezzlement, a bishop decreed biennial audits for every parish. That hardly inspires confidence. Anything short of an annual audit shouldn't be sanctioned. No publicly held company would be allowed that practice. Why should parishioners' gifts be treated any differently? Sounds like the same ol' cover-up to me.

(THE REV.) MATTHEW ERNST Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.

You missed the mark with the title "Pilfering Priests"--it should have been "Plundering Priests." My wife and I left the Roman Catholic Church after its hypocritical handling of the sexual-abuse scandals. We were tired of wondering to which lawsuits our contributions were being directed as a payout to another victim. Now priests, as you describe, are "living as hedonistically as Renaissance Popes" by stealing from the contributions made by their parishioners. When will the church wake up and allow priests to marry, so they can enjoy life with a companion as God and nature intend?

BILL O'BRIEN Port Republic, Va.

Was it neccesary to use an illustration straight out of the Know-Nothingism of 1850s propaganda? I recognize that many priests have not honored their vows, and they are the ones who make the news. On the other hand, there are thousands who tend the sick, educate the poor and give of themselves to make people like me proud to be a member of the Catholic faith. This nation has accomplished a great deal in building tolerance among people of all religions, races and ethnicities. Let's not destroy those accomplishments with the use of offensive images.

MARTA PERDOMO ALDAY Key Biscayne, Fla.

The priestly ways portrayed by Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in the movie Going My Way are long gone. Like most Catholics, I am disappointed in the conduct of priests who scandalize the church. However, like most Catholics, I go to Mass to worship God and not the parish priest.

KEVIN J. CUTTONE Arlington Heights, Ill.

Code of Blackness?

Orlando Patterson's "The New Black Nativism" [Feb. 19] brought to mind the support that many African Americans gave O.J. Simpson while he was on trial for the murder of his wife. If it's true that black Americans seem less likely to support Barack Obama as a presidential candidate because he is "the son of an immigrant ... brought up by middle-class whites," why was there such overwhelming support for O.J., who does not come close to representing the average African American (or the average white American for that matter)?

JACKIE ALLENBAUGH Huntington Beach, Calif.

My significant other and I were able to attend a fund raiser for Obama before he was elected to the U.S. Senate. We were proud, excited and hopeful that as a black man Obama would be a part of the next generation of leadership. The fact that his father was an African immigrant and his mother was white was not a negative matter to us in any way. We were pleased that a different type of leader was on the horizon. Now that Obama has announced his candidacy for President, we are interested only in his platform and how he runs his campaign. I am proud of the expanding mosaic of black Americans.

CAROLYN GAUTIER ADAMS Bowie, Md.

Let's Hope It's Not Contagious

RE "Gaffes to the Rescue" [Feb. 19]: I wonder whether Michael Kinsley's imagined description of ABC executives' using "a crack of the whip" on the gaffe-prone African-American actor Isaiah Washington was simply an unfortunate use of a cliche or evidence that even those who take it upon themselves to analyze gaffes are still subject to perpetrating them. I agree with Kinsley that we should all be able to shrug off the stupid things people say (or write), but I found his use of a potent image of slavery in this context to be ironic, to say the least.

MICHAEL ZIMMER Los Angeles

Women in Science

One of the most exciting findings in brain science is that different kinds of thoughts can be tied to different patterns of activity in the brain. A sidebar to my article "The Mysteries of Consciousness" [Jan. 29] showed colorful brain scans that revealed different hot spots when people saw a face and when they saw a place--and the same brain areas lit up when the people merely thought about faces and places. Unfortunately, my former colleagues who performed this important study, Kathleen O'Craven of the University of Toronto and Nancy Kanwisher of M.I.T., were not credited.

STEVEN PINKER PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY HARVARD UNIVERSITY Cambridge, Mass.

From Stable to Table?

Oddly enough, I found Joel Stein's essay on horsemeat to be refreshing [Feb. 19]. I love horses and have been hoping for the passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention bill. But why is it acceptable to eat cows, goats and chickens and not horses? There are no rational reasons, only sentimental ones. I'm not about to go out and buy horsemeat, nor will I end my support of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention bill. But I'm going to stop judging those who do eat horse and don't support the legislation. Thanks, Mr. Stein.

THAD DICKINSON Atlanta

Eat what you like, Joel, but while you're eating your horsemeat salad, I'll be laughing. I know what is really in that horsemeat, what you cannot taste through your olive-oil-and-lemon-juice dressing. Since horses are not raised for food in the U.S., they are not subject to the same regulations. We give our horses lots of drugs to keep them healthy, fit and pain-free. I could sell my cancerous Arabian to the slaughterhouse, and her highly medicated meat could end up on your plate. So, go ahead, enjoy your horsemeat. But just be sure that you are prepared to digest a variety of substances that are not for human consumption.

NICOLE R. HUTTER Omaha, Neb.

HOW TO REACH US

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

* Our e-mail address is letters@time.com

Please do not send attachments

* Our fax number is 1-212-522-8949

* Or you can send your letter to: TIME Magazine Letters, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020

* Letters should include the writer's full name,

address and home telephone and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space

CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CHANGE OF ADDRESS

* For 24/7 service, please use our website: www.time.com/customerservice You can also call 1-800-843-8463 or write to TIME at P.O. Box 30601, Tampa, Fla. 33630-0601

BACK ISSUES

* Contact us at help.single@customersvc.com

or call 1-800-274-6800

REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS

* Information is available at the website

www.time.com/time/reprints

* To request custom reprints, photocopy permission or content licensing, e-mail timereprints_us@timeinc.com or fax

1-212-522-1623

ADVERTISING

* For advertising rates and our editorial calendar, visit timemediakit.com

SYNDICATION

* For international licensing and syndication requests, e-mail syndication@timeinc.com or call 1-212-522-5868