Letters to the Editor
“Facts” on abortion
lacking
John Lo (letter to the editor,
March 27th,) finds himself wanting facts on abortion.
Allow me to offer these that he may ponder: The point of the article
that he finds “frivolous” is explicitly about the difficulties
that lack of access to affordable birth control and the extreme hardships
unplanned pregnancies impose on low-income women, and not, as he so vaguely
suggests, “abortion’s influence on poverty and other health
issues.”
The nearly 10-year old study he references is from a journal published
in Finland, and an Internet search using the information provided in
his letter results in a list of Web sites with distinctly conservative
opinions on the topic of abortion.
Thus, his citation is simply that — a distinctly conservative expression
of opinion rather than the statistically significant results he purports
to quote. Furthermore, even a cursory examination of his ‘findings’ from
other hazily referenced studies reveal them to be irrelevant to the point
of absurdity.
Finally, since he is so concerned about the lives of women relative to
their childbearing status and the “ridiculousness” of abortion,
I trust that he fully supports sex and birth control education (other
than abstinence-only programs) and free access to family planning facilities.
If not, then only when Mr. Lo finds himself in a position similar to
pregnant, low-income women may he contribute with any credibility to
the debate as to what “the real issue” is.
— Kimberly Lenz
Graduate Student, Communicative Disorders and Deaf Studies
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