John Cardie also mailed me at home. I don’t know him.

btw, JT, fathers also contribute genetic material to the new human being. Therefore, it is not exclusively a women’s issue.

Women suffer permanent injury and death from legal abortion, as well. Where’s your concern for the mother?

I agree with your wife’s position for a number of reasons. If and/or when we decide a fetus is a person, then it’s a no-brainer whose rights will win out. (Hint: it’s not the woman’s) Just look at all of the debate over embryonic stem cell research. The results of this research could potentially save thousands of lives (or dramatically improve them), but the anti-choice crowd prioritizes an embryo a few days old (about the size of one of the periods in this post)over children and adults living with disabling or terminal illnesses. The woman carrying the fetus wouldn’t have a chance.

It’s happened before — think back alley abortions, coathangers, etc. As one who had a family member die from an illegal abortion (infection), I would never want to see our country return to that. I might support restrictions on late-term abortions, but never a ban on all of them.

As an aside, am I the only one who finds it interesting that the two people who commented on your wife’s letter were both male? Wonder how their last pregnancies went?

Hope you don’t mind that I’m linking to your post from our blog http://www.sossisson.com/sassblog/sassblog.html. We discuss a lot of “Beginning of Human Life” issues and this is certainly pertinent.

Thanks,
JT