The PG ignores important facets of abortion debate

It breaks my heart that when we talk about abortion we always justify this action as "a woman's right." A woman's right to do what? Kill her child, who also belongs to someone else as well? What other citizens have "the right" to kill innocent, defenseless people? Woman or man, doctor or not, no one ought to have that "right."

We punish anyone else who kills. Abortionists kill defenseless children and are permitted to get away with it. We will all account to God some day. What will we say then? It amazes me that we want to stop the war in Iraq because people are dying, and yet we kill more than 3,000 innocent American children every day and simply justify it as "a woman's right." What about the damage done to women who undergo abortions? How long will the Post-Gazette ignore that ("Abortion Thunder: The Supreme Court Decision Is an Ominous Sign," April 20 editorial)?

I thank God for President Bush and for the fact that most members of the Supreme Court had the heart to put a stop to partial-birth abortion ("Justices Signal Shift on Abortion," April 19). When you cease to care for the least among us, you cease to care for everyone. May eyes be opened at the Post-Gazette.

BETSY SHARP
Bethel Park

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Medical decisions

Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court reversed 30 years of precedent by deciding that a woman's health is no longer a necessary consideration when determining the right to make the difficult, personal, medical decision to have an abortion ("Justices Signal Shift on Abortion," April 19).

Despite strong and significant medical evidence, the court ruled that it is constitutional to ban an accepted medical procedure that is more safe, leaving only other, more dangerous procedures available.

We all agree on the need to reduce the number of abortions, and we're committed to finding common ground to do that through education, prevention and support systems. But deciding to have an abortion is a judgment that should be left to doctors and women.

The decision by this court was a political one. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the four dissenting judges, described what she called "the court's hostility" on this issue: "Throughout, the opinion refers to obstetrician-gynecologists and surgeons who perform abortions not by the titles of their medical specialties, but by the pejorative label abortion doctor. A fetus is described as 'an unborn child' ... The reasoned medical judgments of highly trained doctors are dismissed as 'preferences' motivated by 'mere convenience.' "

The ruling threatens a woman's right to make personal medical decisions but doesn't take away our right to speak out. On this issue, our voices will be heard, especially at the ballot box in 2008.

MARION CONSTANTINIDES
Squirrel Hill

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Insanity and evil

Like many people, I initially questioned the propriety of broadcasting the Virginia Tech killer's video; however, I have since come to see the benefit of doing so, to wit, displaying for all to see how profoundly insane -- not "evil" as some pundits are terming it -- this man was, and the frighteningly easy access he had to powerful weapons. A culture and government that facilitate that easy access is, likewise, not insane but merely evil.

DONALD J. KLOSINSKI
Ross

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Criminal advantage

Once again the anti-gun crowd is at the forefront. If these self-righteous people could guarantee that all the criminals would give up their guns, then maybe I would be able to see their side of it. But the only thing that would happen is, the law-abiding citizens would be at the mercy of the criminals.

A. DiCENZO
Shaler

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No need to see him

The killer's face on the front page of the Sunday Post-Gazette? How much more notoriety can the media give to this very sick individual who caused the ruination of so many precious lives? The article was well-written and interesting ("A Life Consumed by Silence," April 22), but I could have done without the snapshot.

SHARYN REED KELSON
Forest Hills

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No comparison

Rob Rogers' April 17 cartoon was an accurate depiction of a photo taken after the campus shootings at Kent State University in Ohio during the Vietnam War, modified by adding Virginia Tech to the student's sweatshirt.

There is no comparison to the mass murders at Virginia Tech and the four deaths of students at Kent State, shot by the Ohio National Guard. At Virginia Tech we had the worst mass shooting in our nation's history.

The killings at Kent State were a blessing in disguise. The mood on many colleges was beginning to turn violent, with the burning of ROTC buildings, the occupation of offices and confrontations with police. At Kent State, stones and bottles were thrown at the Guard troops by students who thought the Guard's rifles were loaded with blanks. A form of higher education?

Had those four not died at Kent State we could have lost 25 killed at Columbia or 50 killed at Berkeley. After Kent State, the protests across the country were either stopped or very subdued.

ALBERT N. CRAWFORD
Coraopolis

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Bloody parallels

Did President Bush's photo-op at last week's Virginia Tech convocation help victims' families and friends understand the senseless tragedy that occurred there and did it in some way ease the pain of their loss?

If so, perhaps the most humanitarian use of Mr. Bush's remaining days in office might be to attend one or two such gatherings that are held nearly every day -- and will be held nearly every day into the foreseeable future -- in Iraq.

There are parallels: The Virginia Tech event was the senseless act of a deranged individual, and the similar mass killings every day in Iraq are the direct result of Mr. Bush's misguided hubris and greed.

But since Mr. Bush insists on prolonging that string of murders into the indefinite future, the least he could do would be to preside in a more direct, personal way over the grief of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi family members whose sons' and daughters' blood is on his hands.

REID JOYCE
Middlesex

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Hypocrite in chief

In regard to President Bush's convocation speech to the students of Virginia Tech on April 17, he stated:

"It's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering ... Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they are gone, and they leave behind grieving families and grieving classmates and a grieving nation."

President Bush, you are such a hypocrite! This sympathy note to Virginia Tech is a slap in the face of all the families of the soldiers who have lost their lives -- "Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate." The only difference between the massacre at Virginia Tech and the massacre of the war is that the massacre of the war can be eliminated.

President Bush, do something to redeem yourself. Just once. Send the troops home.

CONNIE DUSAK
Avalon

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We must call for the expansion of this safety net

In modern times, we equate health care with having access to physicians, receiving preventive services and taking prescription medicines when needed. In the Catholic tradition, access to health care is an essential human right. Yet, more than 45 million Americans lack health insurance, including 9 million children.

The plight of the uninsured is about more than numbers or politics; it is about the thousands of parents who worry about not having health insurance for their children and praying that they stay healthy and well.

President Bush and members of Congress are debating the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which for 10 years has provided a health safety net for many hard-working families who are not offered health insurance coverage through the workplace or who otherwise cannot afford it.

At the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, we believe that reauthorizing and expanding SCHIP is a critical -- and morally urgent -- first step. This Cover the Uninsured Week, we urge the public to join us in calling for the reauthorization and expansion of SCHIP. Your readers can learn how to get involved by logging onto www.CoverTheUninsured.org.

SISTER PATRICIA MARY HESPELEIN
Vice President
Mission Integration
Pittsburgh Mercy Health System
Uptown

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