Dear editor,
I'm writing in response to Pastor Barry Falk ("We will hang our heads in shame" Record, Dec. 7).
I share his sorrow about brutality against people who have been, and often still are, treated as sub-human: aboriginal people, women, homosexuals, and those with mental or physical challenges.
The problem with including early-term fetuses in these groups is that abortion is sporadic, individually chosen and not dependent on the characteristics of the fetus.
A pregnancy is a problem for some women at some times.
A woman's choice to end a pregnancy is her right. It may not be an easy choice for her, or a happy one, but it belongs only to her and should be respected.
Those who dislike this reality could more usefully work on promoting the conditions that support women to continue a pregnancy: affordable child care, access to education and job training, violence prevention and valuing women's massive and mostly unacknowledged contribution to society each and every day.
We should hang our heads in shame over this absence of support.
If it existed, Pastor Falk wouldn't need to bemoan the status of the fetus, which has always depended on the status of women.
Anne Bauman,
Cumberland