"Utah Catholic Bishop John Wester is wrong, dead wrong, about abortion ("Top Utah Catholic slams bill," Tribune , Dec. 24). My son's birth nearly cost his mother's life; the doctor thought he had lost her. Frightened, we waited five years to try again.
  In the second pregnancy, the fetus attached in the tube rather than the uterus and had to be aborted. Some anti-abortionists say, "Let the mother die" -- to hell with them. Since child delivery meant death for my wife, we adopted our daughter.
  My son might have been motherless from birth, and my daughter could have been aborted. Thankfully, the college girl chose to carry her to full term.
  Neither Bishop Wester nor I possess the extremely personal, deep-in-the-gut emotions involved in her decision. Nor should we fault her had she had an abortion. A mother's life and well-being are of paramount importance for any child. Every pregnant woman knows that to her core.
  Jesus sent the mob away that was going to stone an adulteress. Where, oh where, does that gentleness and understanding exist today?
  It appears that Bishop Wester is throwing stones at some pregnant women. Shame!"
Jerry Crouch
Salt Lake City



I too have had close encounters with pregnancies and the potential loss of my wife. The first was with my first wife, Vicky, who had a partial spontaneous abortion and started to hemorrhage. They had to rush her to the hospital and do what was called a D&C, which is an abortion, to finish the removal of the fetus and stop the bleeding. This was just after Roe Vs Wade, thankfully. The doctor said that in years past they did the D&C procedure, but at the legal risk of the law, should a prosecutor want to charge them. The second was with my current wife, Judy, who had a tubal pregnancy that ruptured causing huge hemorrhaging. They had to put pressure pants on her to keep her blood going to her vital organs until they could stop the bleeding and give her a transfusion. Her blood pressure was zero over zero. In both of these cases there was no choice but to abort the pregnancies or loose my wives. Should we be criminalized for these choices?
 

The Catholic Church, the Mormon Church and the Evangelical Churches that push anti-abortion legislation are wrong. Until a person has been in the situation and had to make the choice does one truly appreciate the ability to make the choice. I would venture to say that there are accounts of Nuns seeking abortions for numerous situations, from rape to love. Most performed without the knowledge of the church.


I recall back in the 60's when a high school girl would get pregnant and Mormon, they would either go to Grand Junction, Colorado to have a legal abortion (it was one of only a few states that abortion was legal) or to Rexberg, Idaho to an unwed mother "school" to have the baby. If they returned to school after only a few days absence, then we knew they went to Grand Junction, if they were out for months and they have a new "sibling", we knew they had been at Rexburg. I don't know why in most Mormon families, the parents of the pregnant girl will adopt the new born as their own and raise it as a sibling of its biological mother. It must be very troubling when the child grows up and realize that their sister is actually their biological mother. There were a few that gave the child up for adoption and some who kept the child and tried to raise it as a parent, very few did this.


As Jerry Crouch points out, there are many medically necessary reasons to perform an abortion, not all are for convenience, as stated by the anti-abortion groups. Yes there are many women who had an abortion for whatever reason that now regret that decision and carry heavy guilt. But that is no reason to outlaw the procedure for everyone. We all make choices we regret and have heavy guilt for, like adultery, not being there to help a friend or family member when they needed help, making a bad investment that takes all your money, filing bankruptcy, etc. But these choice don't put you in jail.


If these churches want to punish their parishioners for having an abortion through excommunication, that is their prerogative. But leave it in the church and their moral teachings. Not as public law.


This is another conflict between science and religion. Within the science arena the fetus is a parasite dependent on the host for development. Therefore it is not a person until the umbilical cord is severed and the first breath is taken. Then the fetus becomes a person. Depending on the religion, the female egg is considered a person waiting for fertilization. These eggs have legal standing and rights. They don't consider the sperm as persons. I don't know what they consider a woman's monthly cycle to be? Others determine that when an egg becomes fertilized, then that single cell is now a person with legal standing and rights. Thus any termination is murder. I do not know how they reconcile spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) as an act of God or God's will and a medically necessary abortion as murder? If it is OK for God to perform an abortion, why not humans? If God is perfect and does nothing wrong, then if he causes a spontaneous abortion, is he not committing a murderous act?


I also have a problem with the fanatical anti-abortionist who kill others in hopes of stopping abortions, like the shooting of Dr. Tiller recently. If they are for the sanctity of life, why can they take the life of another human? How can they bomb clinics that kill and injure others? How can they reconcile this? Oh, the killings are justified by God.


The decision to have an abortion is a very deep and personal one that a woman has to make. It is also a decision that has a life and death outcome to either the mother or the fetus, who should make that choice? You, me, Carl Wimmer, Catholic Bishops, Mormon Leaders? NO! ONLY THE WOMAN!