Abortion shouldn't be birth control
I know the pro-choice group is very unhappy with the Supreme Court's decision to return the abortion issue to the individual states, where it belonged in the first place.
To hear the left talk, however, you would also think that birth control is no longer going to be readily available either.
Here's a thought. Birth control has not been outlawed. Even some schools provide it. If you want to be pro-choice, start by choosing to be more careful.
Abortion should never be used as a form of birth control.
Catherine M. White
Questions for those supporting decision
To those who are jubilant that Roe is overturned: I hope you hold the same passion for supporting the mothers who are forced to birth unwanted babies.
Will you and our legislators spend more tax dollars for adoption and placement agencies to handle the "millions of unborn lives" that will now be brought to term?
Will you support increased funding for child protective agencies so they have the manpower and resources to safeguard these unwanted babies?
And most important, will you be first in line to volunteer your home to foster or adopt these babies for the next 18 years until they age out of the state's custody?
I am fearful of the future to see if you will follow your convictions and stand by the consequences of your support of this momentous court decision.
Lee Abelson
Signal Mountain
A stranger's generosity
Recently observed at the Hamilton County tag and title office:
An elderly widow was buying a new tag, but her credit card was declined twice.
She looked in her wallet, saying, "I'm not sure I have $30."
As she fumbled looking for the money, a much younger (and handsome) gentlemen stepped up and put his credit card in, saying, "I'll pay it." The widow protested. "Let me look again." He said, "No, I've got it," and stepped back in line.
The flabbergasted widow said, "Thank you. May I give you a hug?"
A grateful widow left with her tag, thankful for the stranger's kindness she received.
Velma Bearup
We all share a humbling start
And so, with the stroke of the proverbial pen, we return to where we were 50 years ago on the matter of abortion rights. On the one side is the clamor of stolen rights, reproductive health, and the always ambiguous and ubiquitous assertion of choice. But lost in that clamor (confirmed in most of today's reporting) is the troubling matter of what is ended in an abortion, and that of course is a distinct human life. Nothing in the past 50 years has altered that truth; in fact, we know considerably more today about human gestation than we did in 1973.
Put in the simplest terms, it is undeniably true that every one of us currently alive was once a fertilized egg no larger than the period at the end of this sentence. How humbling! Each of us was once a 15-week-old fetus, etc. Each of us was once a totally dependent newborn. These things are incontrovertible, and no thoughtful, productive debate in any legislative chamber can continue to ignore them.
Gary Lindley
Lookout Mountain, Ga.
Disgusting what GOP has become today
Who will be next, your child, grandchild, another relative or friend?
Since Columbine in 1999, Republicans have only said their meaningless "thoughts and prayers." Then their tired, old mental health line, never doing one thing about that.
But, by golly, "we need more guns" really gets them going. So this is where we are - more and more slaughter with massive murder weapons of mass destruction. Sensible proposals from Democrats have been blocked by the political party that cares nothing about you or the USA. Just as their "dear leader," they'll wave a Bible or hold one upside down to get misguided, so-called Christians to run like banshees to vote for them.
But it's much worse. Republicans would wreck democracy, the USA and human lives just to maintain power and put more money in their greedy pockets. It is so disgusting what the GOP has become.
Walter Benton
Signal Mountain
Is democracy only when we get our way?
Did we have a democracy before Jan. 22, 1973, when Roe was decided? Did we have one the day after Roe was decided? Did we have a democracy before last Friday? Do we have one today? Yes, yes, yes and yes. Here is a better question: Do we only have a democracy when we get our way?
Here are some similar questions that are worthy of introspection and a thoughtful answer: Has the court suddenly become "illegitimate" because it ruled that abortion should be a matter decided by the states individually? Do we only change the number of justices on the court because we don't like the rulings of the present nine and ignore 250 years of jurisprudence?
Is this how civil government works? Is this how we have justice, equality, peace and hope for our society? Is this the world we want to live in and raise our children in - where the loudest, rudest, most vulgar and violent intimidate (or worse) the rest of us until they get their way?
Douglas K. Davis
Ooltewah
Abortion much less dangerous than birth
Some medical definitions of terms: Pregnancy begins at implantation. Abortion is any spontaneous, i.e., miscarriage or therapeutic, interruption of a pregnancy. This term is inappropriate for use prior to implantation. Some risks of pregnancy and abortion defined by deaths per 100,000 for the condition/procedure: U.S. maternal death rate: 23.8; Tennessee maternal death rate: 96.3; European Union: 6 (Greece is 3); U.S. death rate from therapeutic abortion: 0.44.
So the Tennessee General Assembly is compelling a woman to do something that is many multiple times more dangerous in Tennessee than having a therapeutic abortion. Where is this in the Constitution?
Remember this when voting.
Tom Jenkins