Instead of Aborting, Try Adoption
Confronted with New York state’s newly adopted “late term abortion” policy, I would offer an alternate solution for other states considering the same policy (“Where Religion Falls Short,” Jan. 31).
Given that our country now recognizes that loving relationships come in all colors, beliefs and genders, rather than killing these late-term babies, let’s offer couples who are looking to adopt a beautiful child.
Rather than wasting a life, we would be fulfilling a dream for prospective parents while still allowing the birth mother to end her pregnancy. Viable preterm babies can live healthy lives. Happily, the American population has melted into a beautiful rainbow of colors, beliefs and gender combinations.
Let’s use this much needed and wanted congruence to permit adoption of these fragile, but most certainly vibrant with life, babies. Let’s give them a loving home rather than a medical waste bag. If we want to allow all those wishing asylum to come to our shores, can we not provide our youngest and most vulnerable with a first birthday?
Ann Krauss | Havertown
Nothing Cavalier Nor Easy About Abortion
A recent letter contains comments and assertions that are patently false (“Human Life is Worth the Inconvenience,” Feb. 7). The writer draws the conclusion that women who have abortions do so for cavalier reasons.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The decision to have an abortion is one that requires a great deal of thought. I do not believe that any pregnant woman wakes up one morning and says to herself, “I have nothing to do today, so I think I will go and get an abortion.” Any woman who contemplates ending a pregnancy does so for deeply personal reasons, and I do not question her thought processes.
Furthermore, the writer says that safe and legal abortions were easily available in Philadelphia prior to the decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. This is incorrect. A woman who wanted an abortion in Pennsylvania prior to 1973 had to find two psychiatrists who would deem her unfit to take care of a child.
Let that sink in for a moment. A woman who was already a mother had to convince two other adults that she was an unfit mother. Assuming she went through that ordeal, she had to find a doctor who would agree to perform the abortion. This was not an easy task. The usual ways were through someone who knew someone, or going to an unlicensed practitioner and risking infection and/or death; there was also the “do it yourself” method, also known as the wire coat hanger. Also, in 1973, many doctors would not prescribe contraception and, in many states, it was illegal.
I always thought that Judaism defined when life begins as the moment when the head emerges from the birth canal and the soul enters the body.
One thing I have learned in my 80 years is to try not to be too judgmental of other people’s life decisions since I cannot possibly know what is really going on in their lives and why they make the choices they do. I think that it would serve the writer well if he applied that philosophy to his own thinking and spent his time trying to make life better for the living.
Jean Stein | Media
