Dear Editor,
The most consequential decision people make may be to have a child. Responsible parenting requires massive commitments of time and resources to the health and upbringing of a child.
There can be issues concerning whether a pregnancy will occur, or if the much-desired pregnancy requires an intervention like in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Pregnancy places extraordinary demands on a woman’s body and may require constant weighing of risks to the health and even the life of a woman throughout pregnancy.
A number of state legislatures have severely limited or prohibited the performance of abortions. The consequences: a 10-year-old raped and unable to get an abortion in her home state; women who have miscarriages accused of having abortions; women forced to wait for life-saving abortions until their lives are deemed adequately at risk for a physician to feel he or she can legally terminate the pregnancy.
Emboldened by these measures, some legislators now oppose IVF and even the use of contraception. There is scant evidence these legislators understand the consequences of their actions. There is abundant evidence that the citizens of such states do, with a Niagara of ballot initiatives passed and pending to restore the right of women and their physicians to make vital personal decisions.
It is not preordained that we will have legislators who place our lives and well-being at risk. We have choices in November, and we should make them.
Bruce Menke, Athens