THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 25, 1994 TAG: 9409230022
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
I read with amazement the news about the teenager who didn't have the money for an abortion and was so desperate that she shot herself in the stomach thinking that might induce one. She was taken to the hospital and a 6-month baby was delivered by C-section with a bullet hole in the wrist. This story ended with the baby dying and the young girl being charged with murder.
The only comment from pro-abortion groups was that there needed to be more access to abortion. Why weren't they up in arms about this woman being charged with murder? After all, this was just a ``fetus,'' a ``mass of tissue.''
I am pro-life, but I don't see how this young woman is being charged with murder when she just used a gun instead of a scalpel. Hers was the desperate and emotional act of a person under high enormous stress, not the cool and experienced hand of a professional.
Is a gunshot any worse than the slice-the-baby-up-and-pull-the-baby-apart procedure that is used in late-term abortions?
Or how about the new DEX procedure, where the professional brings everything except the baby's head outside the woman's body (the arms and legs are moving) then cuts a hole in the base of the skull, inserts a tube and sucks the baby's brains out? This procedure is a lot safer than the slice-them-up process because there is less chance of infection to the woman - no baby parts left inside.
Life is not situational; it just is. Murder is murder, no matter what tools are used.
EDDIE HAMM
Elizabeth City, N.C., Sept. 15, 1994 by CNB