I am writing in response to the letter written by Shelley Gundrey (Herald, May 30). As a woman who would choose not to have an abortion, I am equally relieved and proud that we still live in a country where a woman has a right to choose for herself what is best for her when it comes to this difficult decision. I have not and will never support a group or political party that wants to see this right taken away from women. Yes, you can scream all you want that the baby, fetus, embryo has rights, but that is your opinion, and you have the right to do what is best for you and your body.
What stood out for me in the letter is that she makes no mention of the woman’s rights. Apparently, once pregnant, women are merely the vessel, an incubator, a slave with no say in the matter. She uses colorful descriptions as if to infer that the women are being held down and the abortion is happening against their will.
Women who lose the right to decide for themselves may end up in days of old seeking abortions in medically unsafe conditions, performed by someone unqualified or attempting to abort on their own. Consider also the unwanted children born into this world. What happens to them? Will those who took away a woman’s freedom, a woman’s right to choose, who enslaved them to give birth be there to raise the child, or is their job done? The child is now left to fend for itself, sent into the system or perhaps left in a dumpster.
We live in a country that allows (for now) women to make an educated decision based on facts and not scare tactics. The only “slavery” when it comes to women and abortion involves those who would enslave a woman’s body to satisfy their own beliefs.
Joanne Graves
Bayfield
