Letters to the Editor
LT Bohica
Published Letters: 284 Editor's Choice: 4
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Crunchy Frog
[Read the article: Obama and late-term abortion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There could be instances.
For example, a 12 or 13 year old could hide/deny/be unaware of a pregnancy until the third trimester. Or be *forced* to hide an incestuous pregnancy by her abuser.
It is not outside the realm of possibility considering the astonishing child sexual abuse rates in the U.S. A quick google turned up many web sites that use a 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 statistic for girls suffering sexual abuse before the age of 18. That's a huge number, but I don't have trouble believing it based on the number of women I know who had funny uncles or molesting step fathers.
Also anecdotal, but when I was stationed in Japan I had two or three calls a week from mothers asking about abortion availability off base for their minor female dependents. I remember vividly one mother hauling her 11 year old into my office crying. I didn't think 11 years olds could get pregnant - shows what I knew back then. They were happy to learn abortion was easy to come by in Japan as it was the number one form of birth control at the time. (A cultural thing it would take a while to explain - but basically the pill wasn't legal until 1999. Not sure if this has changed since.)
My quick google also turned up this applicable statistic: 96% of female rape survivors were younger than 12 years old and knew their attackers. U.S. Department of Justice, 1992.
Even if it was only a couple hundred cases or even ten or twenty cases a year, why should they suffer so a politician can pander to crazy right wing forced birthers who will never vote for him anyway?
Yes, late term abortions may be less than one percent of all abortions, but that number is at least six thousand or more a year. Six thousand is a lot of human misery when you consider the aggregate.
PS -- Thank you, Salon for finally covering this issue.
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Racism?
[Read the article: Are Democrats backpedaling on abortion rights?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Oh, gee... write something reasoned, but critical about Senator Obama and all of a sudden I'm racist.
Like I haven't had that silencing tactic used against me by men before.
Yawn.
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To all you forced birther commenters here
[Read the article: Obama and late-term abortion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is just wonderful that you have philosophical issues with third trimester abortion or think one sort of fetal physical and/or mental impairment is not a reason to abort.
Yes, very lovely that you are so evolved.
Please feel free to apply your philosophies, morals and judgment to your future pregnancies and your personal abortion quandaries.
And please feel free to resent the implication that "having genuine concerns about third term abortions constitutes an anti-choice position" all you want and more power to you.
Just realize that the true heart of choice is the principle that each woman gets to use her own morals and reasons to make her own decision for herself.
What you think and what a bunch of politicians think should be irrelevant.
Attempting to substitute your morals and "right thinking" for another woman's is anti-choice, paternalistic, misogynistic, and condescending.
It makes you a forced birther - no matter how pro-choice you may think you are.
Women *must* be able to control their own bodies or they will always be treated less than human.
Get that into your pointy heads and keep your philosophies out of other women's uteruses and lives.
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Corollary to Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Obama
[Read the article: Today's coverup of surveillance crimes and Barack Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you do speak ill, you are racist.
Been hit with that one yet?
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And the forced birther beat goes on
[Read the article: Obama and late-term abortion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Point one - women can be misogynistic and are often their own worst enemies.
Point two - I never said sex ed and prevention weren't important, but I refuse to buy into your argument that you or anyone else has anything relevant to say about some other woman's life and abortion decision. You don't. All your blather about when life begins is just another way of intimating that women are children who can't make decisions about their owns lives. Further, I never said "it's all my choice and to Hell with the rest of you." I wrote that it is each woman's individual choice that she must be left free to make. Not that I believe in the existence of hell - how presumptively religious of you to assume so.
Point three - Again, lovely that you are amongst the group that had a child with a birth defect and it worked out, but your experience does not make you qualified to make decisions for others. I add pompous to my list - anti-choice, paternalistic, misogynistic, condescending and pompous.
What will it take for people like you to recognize that what you might think is best is wonderful for your life, but each woman must be free to decide for herself without your or governmental interference?
PS - Doctorate degrees fail to impress. Having a wall full of degrees myself, I know exactly what they are worth. Coffee still costs a buck ninety-five at the neighborhood cafe.
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Correct Link for Update One
[Read the article: Today's coverup of surveillance crimes and Barack Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The current link GG has posted takes you back to GG's blog.
This is the link to the article about the ads our Act Blue FISA page money paid for against Rep Barrows:
http://savannahnow.com/node/530151
If you want to see the ad Blue America is running, it is posted on this blog:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/07/john-barrow-asked-to-account-for-most.html
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When considering third party Candidates
[Read the article: Today's coverup of surveillance crimes and Barack Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't forget the Greens and Cynthia McKinney.
The Green Convention is this weekend in Chicago.
www.gp.org
www.runcynthiarun.org
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But, But, But...
[Read the article: Congress votes to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, legalize warrantless eavesdropping]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hope!
Change!
Unity!
or something like that.
(snark)
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Malusinka
[Read the article: Obama and late-term abortion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My values do not impact anyone other than myself. So I see no need for you to "know where I stand." I do not go about forcing my morals or beliefs on anyone.
If you had wanted to abort at any time, I would not have questioned your choice - because it is *your* choice.
It is not my place or yours to judge other women and their choices.