Letters: Was Bob Heleringer's 'extremist' column off base or what needed to be said?

Reactions to Bob Heleringer's recent column have been coming in as letters to the editor.

Read what he wrote here:Who is the real 'extremist' in the race for Louisville mayor? Opinion

So obviously wrong and over-the-top

I like Bob Heleringer. The former Republican Kentucky legislator generally writes thoughtful, if mostly misguided, columns in this newspaper. Sometimes I even agree with what he has to say.

However, in his column this week, Bob wrote something that was so obviously wrong and over-the-top that I had to check to see if Marjorie Taylor Greene had taken over his computer.

Here’s what he wrote: “At the national level, all Democrats in the White House and the U.S. Congress believe in abortion-on-demand up until the second of birth — even their sacrosanct Roe v. Wade didn’t go that far.”

As Joe Biden would say, “Come on, man!”

I am still in the U.S. Congress for another couple months, and I don’t believe that. I don’t know one Democrat who does. I don’t think Joe Biden and Kamala Harris believe that either.

I know Bob is sincerely and passionately against abortion. That’s his choice. But when you make outrageous and demonstrably erroneous claims about people you really don’t even know, the credibility of your entire argument disintegrates.

And this Democrat, whom Bob does know, can only say, Come on, man!

Congressman John Yarmuth, 40027

More:Louisville mayoral election: Bill Dieruf says Craig Greenberg is lying in abortion ad

He's right about Greenberg's hypocrisy

The guest columnist today was precisely correct in reviewing the hypocrisy in Greenberg's mayoral campaign. He is losing ground, so seeks an inflammatory issue, similar to Marjorie Taylor-Greene, to stir opinion by using unnamed sources, creating the scene on actions he cannot take (a mayor cannot direct police to arrest a physician in this instance or a patient - this is states' rights, not civic) and is already into the deny, deny, deny category. So, we have a candidate who creates issues on something he has no control over, makes threats over the same topic, yet takes donations from abortion advocates.

The platform of a man without experience, and a man who clearly has no plan for the problems such as crime, policing and economic development for which he would have responsibility. If you can win on merits, shift the blame to something you can't control and tell people its the others guy's issue. How third grade can we be?

Philip Reed, 40222

Op-ed filled with egregious misstatements

I have known Bob Heleringer for many, many years. We met when he was a Kentucky state legislator and I was (and still am) a vocal advocate for reproductive rights. I won’t speak for him, but I considered our relationship a congenial adversarial one. We have always disagreed on issues related to reproductive rights, particularly abortion. But I considered our disagreements based upon the same set of basic facts, until now.

That’s why I was surprised to open my Courier Journal this morning and find an op-ed filled with egregious misstatements. In my over 40 years of reproductive rights work, I have never -never – heard anyone – Democrats included – say they “believe in abortion-on-demand up to the second of birth,” as he claims Democrats believe. No one. And I know that Heleringer, who is a lawyer and not a medical practitioner, has no knowledge whatsoever of an abortion happening at the time of birth.

You will only ever hear these claims made by Republicans seeking to tar Democrats as extreme. This outlandish and inflammatory fabrication demonstrates what extreme measures some are willing to employ to score electoral points and politicize public health.

Since the 1970s Republicans have used abortion as a wedge issue, as an issue to excite their base. Now, however, Republicans have resorted to outrageous lies such as the ones contained in Heleringer‘s column. Shame on them.

Kim Greene is a Louisville attorney and a member of the board of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky. She lives in zip code 40204.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Letters: Is Heleringer's 'extremist' column off base or what's needed?