Do those who support mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions in Virginia [letters, Feb. 13] think that women who have made the difficult and emotional decision to undergo an abortion are too stupid to know what they are doing? And yet they are smart enough and have the emotional support and financial stability to properly care for themselves and a child for the next 18 years?
I wish that men would stop placing controls on women. Abortion is legal in this country. Let women make the decisions that affect their bodies and their lives.
Elaine Wehle Nunnally, Leesburg
●
I am writing as a woman to say that no man, including my dear husband of 53 years, my doctor, my clergyman and, most of all, my elected representative, ever had the right to make me either get pregnant against my wishes (by withholding contraception information and access), or to have a child (by forcing me to undergo expensive and unnecessary medical procedures before getting an abortion). It was my choice to decide if a pregnancy and a child would be in the best interests of myself and my family.
In my reproductive years, I was pregnant eight times. Two of those pregnancies ended in miscarriages. Six of the pregnancies resulted in the birth of a child. Two of those children later died. I sometimes think of the children I might have had, but I mourn the children I did have and whom I held in my arms and nursed at my breast. I will never forget them. In my mind there is a world of difference between those potential children and the two children I did have and lost.
Each woman must have the right to decide reproductive issues for herself, without male (or female) interference.
Judith Newman, Fairfax
Loading...
Comments