Partial-Birth Abortions

Rep. Charles T. Canady (R-Fla.) and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) should learn a lesson from a pastor’s notebook (Column Right, March 4): All moral judgments about an ethical decision are only valid if they can be made in the presence of the person making the decision. Could Canady and Santorum read their column out loud to a woman who is deciding on the partial-birth abortion procedure, and then feel good about themselves? I doubt it.

Take Jane (not her real name), who sat in my office recently with her husband, trying to make this frightful decision. Through amniocentesis and ultrasound, compassionate and skilled doctors clearly determined her baby would be born with a malformed heart, defective spinal cord and with brain damage. The baby, if carried to term, would not survive at birth. The mother was not at risk.

She made a decision only a mother can make--what is best for the child. She opted for the procedure, not because it was best for her, but best for the damaged life that grew within her. Santorum and Canady think they know better, proposing to make Jane a criminal because her health was not in jeopardy. Rather, they can only humiliate her with gruesome details of the procedure and veiled accusations of murder. Shame on them.

THE REV. TIMOTHY SAFFORD

All Saints Church, Pasadena

Thanks to Canady and Santorum for their excellent commentary on Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, who admitted that he lied about the frequency, reasons for and age of the babies during partial-birth abortions. Many are wondering why this method is even used.

The health-of-the-mother exception is a catch-all. It can include any mental or physical problems the pregnant woman can come up with. It opens a Pandora’s box to abortion on demand. The health-of-the-mother phrase in the original 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision allowed legal abortions up to nine months such as the partial-birth abortion in the first place!

The life-of-the-mother exception was always part of the bill and will be again. This is the only exception that is needed. We must stop this barbaric type of abortion.

DITA VAUGHN

Newport Beach