Editor, The Beacon:

To Patricia James’ letter to The Beacon. The title of the letter was: “How will history judge us for abortion?”

It is a question of interest. Today, we are ignoring the full history of American women, about church control of women, about suppression of women in institutions, education, sports and business. It is too obvious that being female means our bodies and lives are not ours to control. Men are born as assets and women as liabilities to be marginalized.

You say it is the mother (pregnant woman) who has to “deal” with the pregnancy. Pregnancy is always life-threatening to a woman. The dishonesty of not valuing and recognizing that as a fact undermines women and jabs at our self-worth.

There is ignorance and denial about how our bodies function and how pregnancies, like women ourselves, are exactly alike, while being totally different. Every pregnancy, even of the same woman, is different.

The U.S. has some of the highest rates in the world of infant mortality, as well as high numbers of women dying from pregnancy-related causes. Why aren’t the “pregnancy pushers”’ outraged about that?

Women’s bodies can be impregnated. Men are fertile 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Women are fertile once a month. There is a pretty hefty imbalance with our design to make laws such that women can’t control their own health when making life-threatening and life-determining decisions.

To make women totally responsible for pregnancy, while men are the most fertile, is hideously ignorant. Women are expected to “deal” with all of it, and we have been.

There is some confusion in your comments. Is the baby owned by the woman, or the man? You seem more concerned about the man’s rights, even though the woman risks way more in terms of health, life and opportunity, while the man’s risk is minimal.

There are those who think like you: There should be no abortions. The majority of Americans though believe it is a woman’s body and her decision. Lacking consensus on your beliefs hasn’t deterred you from disregarding women. These anti-choice laws beg one of my favorite questions: Can’t trust me with a choice; how can you trust me with a child?

History? Today’s abortion questions, for tomorrow’s story, already tell me that the opposition is dishonest and with evidence of completely denying the history of Roe v. Wade. Roe came to be because desperate women were dying from botched, illegal abortions. Women were being taken advantage of, disregarded by unscrupulous phonies. Plus, a big part of Roe was the pushback by legitimate doctors for being criminalized for performing abortions.

Now it is sad and maddening that women’s lives aren’t even in conversations of worth to the anti-abortion forces. And doctors in support of women’s right to health care are living with uncertainty, fear, threats, lack of support and limitations going against their medical creed and commitment.

It begs the question: How can you think you can go into a woman’s most personal life and decide what she should or shouldn’t do? What risks attach to you and what responsibilities for the outcome do you bear? Information should guide choice, not an external person’s ignorance of the specifics and unwillingness to stay around to see what happens.

There is no abortion, you get your way. Down the road, this woman knocks on your door, desperate with needs for her child. I venture to say, you’d tell her it is none of your affair; possibly with irritation for asking.

Tell me, why is it that I get to come into your life and decide the outcome of most personal, private, intimate, life-altering, irrevocably, possibly life-threatening situations? (Ones that I have zippo responsibility or consequences for.)

Here’s how I’m viewing ownership. It seems the anti-choice fanatics are focused on owning a woman’s fertility. But hear me with this: Unless and until it is you who accepts responsibility, you have no choice, nor deserve any.

I’m wondering about tomorrow’s history. Let it be the positive chapter of women’s freedoms, where women regain the right of owning our own bodies.

Midge Fournier
DeLand