Letter: Decision on abortion must be the woman’s

Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007 | 7 a.m.

At last, a sensible letter on behalf of women's rights ("Overturning Roe would put women at risk," Nov. 1). Letter writer Jerry Bitts gets it!

Nearly every woman knows a horror story involving women who sought abortions before legalized treatment was available. The cases I encountered happened in the '50s and '60s. The facts are too horrible to reveal. Real women, real tragedies.

Why is it that men are so vocal on this issue? The women (hopefully not girls) know their own situations and whether they are equipped physically, financially and emotionally to bring children into this world. Don't they have the right to their own lives, their own bodies , and to decide for themselves?

Babies have the right to be wanted and loved. Haven't we seen enough of child abuse and neglect to realize that not every woman should bear young?

Why is abortion even considered in this day and age with all the birth control available? But it is, and women deserve the right to not be enslaved by their own bodies. They would have 18 years, perhaps more, of caring for achild they didn't even want. They are the ones who would be (hopefully) providing the care, the feeding, the housing, the time and effort.

Well-to-do women will always be able to afford the termination of unwanted pregnancies. And the poor women will continue to remain poor and drag young ones into an impoverished existence.

Eileen Schenck, Las Vegas