Dear Editor:
In response to Dan Richardson's letter on April 8, regarding abortion, more information needs to be added to the subject he so narrowly approached. Facts: 54 percent of women who have abortions are younger than 25; 20 percent are teenagers. Two-thirds of these women said they couldn't afford to have the child, and half wouldn't have wanted to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband/partner. Thirteen thousand abortions occur following rape or incest.
Imagine if those abortions never occurred. Do you think that most of those kids would be the ones who would be there so you wouldn't have to play basketball alone? In 1993, 2,815,600 children were abused or neglected; there would be many more if women in abusive relationships had given birth to the child they aborted. Eleven million children live in poverty; how many more would have to endure this hardship if not for the difficult choice their mother made not to bring them into this situation?
What we need is not more people, but more prospects for those already here. In addition to the obvious needs of better education for the underprivileged and more emphasis on volunteerism, we need less taboos and embarrassment in regards to sex education for adolescents. How many of you women out there knew, when you started having sex, at which point during your cycle you are most likely to get pregnant? How many of you know now? (And how many of you cringed when I used the phrase "your cycle?") If girls were really educated about sex from teachers who weren't embarrassed and approached it as a natural and important subject, maybe they would know enough to take charge of their sex lives and not end up in the terrible dilemma that leads them to abortion.
Nessa Russell
senior, French
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
