Letters to the Editor: The wealthy will always have abortion access. I did 62 years ago
To the editor: The U.S. is now officially a third-world country with a draconian Supreme Court. It is time to use third-world tactics. ("In historic reversal, Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade, freeing states to outlaw abortion," June 24)
In 2009, the women of Kenya called a sex strike to settle a political dispute. After one week, the problem was solved. Perhaps it's time for more drastic measures here in our own country.
I had an illegal abortion in Texas at 18 thanks to the wealthy parents of my boyfriend who paid for it. It was performed during the regular business hours of an OB-GYN doctor. Nothing was hidden.
We were too young to marry and raise a child. I am forever grateful to them for that gift.
The wealthy will always be able to have access to doctors. It is the poor people who have to go to butchers or bring the unwanted and unloved children into the world. How dare the Supreme Court put this burden on the poor.
By the way, I am 80 years old. I have never shared this with anyone, but it is now time.
Betty Dunbar, Hermosa Beach
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To the editor: The abhorrent decision by the Supreme Court has created a group of second-class citizens. A fetus now has greater rights than any woman or girl of reproductive age. In many states, those women will be relegated to become forced incubators regardless of any risk a pregnancy presents, or in the words of one disgraced congressman, "earthen vessels."
Gilead came sooner than any of us anticipated thanks to six justices who put their own personal and stringent religious beliefs before the rights of Americans.
Cathy Goldberg, Seal Beach
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To the editor: For antiabortionists, overturning Roe is not the end. It's just the beginning of the end.
To them, life begins at conception and abortion is murder. They will now fight to have the Supreme Court declare the fetus or the embryo a person with 14th Amendment protection. If they succeed, the life of the fetus will be entitled to due process and equal protection along with that of the mother. The consequences will be extreme.
Imagine an expectant mother whose pregnancy endangers her life having to fight her fetus represented by a court-appointed attorney to determine if she can get an abortion. And under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause, a ruling for fetal personhood would invalidate all state laws granting abortion rights.
That is the true endgame for the antiabortionists.
Alan B. Posner, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: The overturning of Roe vs. Wade is a step in the march toward authoritarianism. The conservative justices are carrying us away from democracy under cover of "originalism."
We have to fight to prevent the authoritarian takeover of our country. I don't want my granddaughter, about to be born — or anyone — to live her life in a country where cruelty is legal.
Kathy Seal, Santa Monica
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To the editor: I'm reminded of a quote from social critic H.L. Mencken, "For every complex problem there is a simple solution that’s clear, direct and wrong."
Have an alcohol problem? Just prohibit it. A problem with drugs? Just declare a war on them. And your successor will have to declare another one, and their successor as well, ad infinitum.
Antiabortion forces shouldn't be too quick to celebrate the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. With most abortions now achieved through medication rather than a procedure, I bid you good luck trying to stop them. You're going to need it.
Gary Garshfield, Irvine
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To the editor: So the Supreme Court has decided that it's constitutional for the government to tell you when you can start your family, just as the founders intended. As Jefferson and Madison wrote, "We must enshrine the right of state governments to make you conform to your neighbors' religious beliefs."
Or maybe I'm reading that wrong?
Lee Bridges, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I'm too dumb to own my uterus, but I can openly carry a gun. Interesting.
Marcella Hill, Los Angeles
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
