Letter: Smarter alternatives to prevent abortions

Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

In his Jan. 12 letter, Timothy R. Carroll asks why Tanya Brown (in her Jan. 6 letter) doesn't include the freedom of the unborn with the freedom of the woman carrying it. The reason why is because a fetus is not free -- it is wholly dependent on the woman carrying it. It cannot survive without her. Even an infant, which is also wholly dependent, can be cared for by someone other than its mother. You cannot equate a fetus with a child and you certainly cannot equate it with an adult. Freedom comes with independence, which is not reached until adulthood.

Abortion is always a tragedy. But what should the alternative be? Turning every fertile woman into a ward of the state? That is what happens when the state takes away from a woman the right to make fundamental decisions about her own destiny. If she cannot choose abortion, as long as she could become unwillingly pregnant through rape or failed birth control, the state controls her life.

The only way to prevent abortions without restricting anyone's freedom is through comprehensive, realistic sex education and by making affordable, safe, effective birth control available to all women from menstruation through menopause.

Liz Cronkhite

Las Vegas