To the editor: Our Supreme Court was embarrassed this week with the release of their recent ruling on the Roe v. Wade law that took effect in 1973. This landmark decision protected a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose abortion during the first trimester of the pregnancy. It was hugely contested because it affected Federal & State abortion laws.
I have wondered through the years how many women who, for various reasons, cannot have children and would give their eye teeth just to be able to conceive. But I digress.
A woman has several choices: She can use birth control; she can refuse to have sex (now, there’s a thought); her doctor can close her fallopian tubes or her husband’s doctor could perform a vasectomy.
When birth control pills became available in the mid-late 60’s, I heard a woman say it was impossible to get pregnant if you use birth control. We all know this is not true, but it has its merits. I’ve always been a pro-choice woman – let a woman decide about her body.
Then I read a book about two high school girls who got pregnant and the school nurse set up appointments for them at a local abortion clinic without any knowledge or consent from their parents. This clinic was a parade ground of high school girls who were treated coarsely by the doctor and staff and sent home after the procedure. One girl’s mother found her daughter doubled over in her bed bleeding and took her to the hospital for help. The other girl’s mother was working and did not discover her daughter until after she had bled to death.
I guess I am writing this letter because when Roe v. Wade was accepted into law, I knew birth control would fly out the window. Why should a girl/woman worry about pregnancy when abortion is so quick, and the government (that’s you and me) is paying for it. This can become a revolving door.
So if you find yourself wondering what to do with yet “another pregnancy,” keep people like my family in mind. We would have gone childless if two women had chosen to throw their babies away instead of offering them a chance at life with a family who could love them.
Sylvia Prescott
Clarkesville