To the Editor:

This letter is in response to the letter to the editor that you posted titled "Prohibiting abortion does not stop it from happening unsafely." I do agree that there are some out there who are unchristian, mentally unstable people who have done violence to people. I do also agree that there are women who have tried to attain abortions, when it was illegal, and have suffered physically from it. But I feel that the author of this letter has missed the point on so many levels. Abortion is a lose, lose, lose, proposition. Here is why:

The first, and most obvious to me, is that an abortion (legal or illegal) promotes violence. With an abortion the baby loses (its life through a violent death). People talk about “women’s rights”…about half of these babies who lose their life were female. What rights did they have?

Second, the mother loses (knowing for the rest of her life that she had her baby killed--including the possibilities for physical and mental complications.)

Third, a prospective adopting couple loses (by not fulfilling their dream of raising a child in a loving way). There are 200,000 couples who desperately DO want a baby! Each year there are only 25,000 babies to adopt. Adoption is a loving option!

Many women who “choose” abortion may not really want an abortion but feel that it is their only choice. They are a single mom, a minor still living with parents, financially unable to raise the child, still in school, or have hundreds of other reasons. Many women lack a support system. If her husband, boyfriend, parents, and others pressure her to have an abortion then she feels that she has no choice. That she can’t keep her baby even when that is what she really wants. There is help out there for these moms. The North Country has 11 Gabriel Projects that help pregnant women. Information can be found on the Diocese of Ogdensburg website: http://www.dioogdensburg.org/pro-life/Gabriel%20Project.html

Abortion, legal or illegal, is not good for anyone involved. I (and many others) are not “anti-abortion,” we are “Prolife”…for the baby in the womb, for the mom, for the family, for the elderly…we are for LIFE! If we all spend a little time and energy supporting moms in our area then the number of abortions would decrease…a win, win, win!!

Donna Steenberg

Winthrop