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I’m writing in response to Pat Truman’s recent letter to the BDN, “Consequences of abortion law.” This writer is expressing their religious understanding of God’s judgment and his possible punitive reaction toward our state after the Maine Legislature passed LD 1619, which protects and expands medically necessary abortions. Then this writer goes on to say that because the state of Maine has this “hardened attitude” toward unborn children, other forms of child abuse, such as child sex trafficking, are being allowed.
Back in 1973 when the Supreme Court made the Roe v. Wade ruling, making the decision whether to continue or end a pregnancy up to the individual, I was taking an embryology course in college. I remember being very surprised when the professor of this course was exuberant after hearing the decision by the court. Here the professor was teaching about the wondrous beginnings of life before birth and yet she was excited about this ruling. Now, I realize why she reacted that way. The difficult, private decision surrounding whether or not to continue a pregnancy belongs to the woman.
There is much work to be done by our state and country to protect children from all sorts of harm including abuse, gun violence, climate change, drugs and substance use, social media, and poverty. But these problems do not occur because of a woman’s right to choose. For many women who desperately want a baby but who need a medically necessary abortion, their only choice is horrific and their grief profound.
Karen Jo Young
Corea
