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Response to “Child definition may help outlaw abortion”

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Dear Mr. Swope:

This letter is regarding the article entitled “Child definition may help outlaw abortion.”

This is not a debate about abortion; it is about our undeniable health needs throughout the life cycle.

The classification of the fetus as an unborn child is not the first of its kind. In fact the Department of Health and Human Services’ has previously allowed welfare benefits and Medicaid coverage for not-yet-born children.

The Supreme Court has decreed that it doesn’t apply in the abortion context, but they never said that the government couldn’t recognize the reality of unborn children for other purposes.

The real issue is access to quality healthcare to pregnant women.

But since you instead decided to divert its attention to the abortion issue, shall comment on such:

The population [growth percentage] rate in this country is below zero. By 2025 there will be twice as many grandparents as young children.

So why then look to abortion to solve this problem?

Most grandparents are beyond childbearing years. The problem of starvation is a combination of many factors including misuse of resources, waste, greed, government inefficiency and failure to distribute food properly- not the [sic]there is not enough food. Instead of taking money from safeguarding this country, as suggested in the article, the government should take the money it spends on abortion to develop long-term solutions.

The government should provide access to quality healthcare to everyone, and that is what it is doing by giving the states the option to include pregnant women in CHIP.

The problem with filing for a federal waiver is that it wastes vital time to the developing child, and mother. Time is not available to waste when we are looking at pregnancy. Furthermore CHIP will provide quality healthcare to women who are not eligible to receive Medicare.

If this county is to remain the land of the free, we must remember that we are all created equal, with certain unalienable rights, among those is life.

Kathleen Lafferty
President, Owls for Life
Junior, Sport and Recreation Management