Letter to the Editor

To the Daily:

Ryan Manthey (Let the people decide on Roe vs. Wade, 09/12/05) writes, “According to one Pew poll, fewer than 10 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be completely illegal.” That is true, but what Manthey leaves out is the rest of the poll. The other part of the poll states that 54 percent believe in “stricter limits” or abortion only in cases of “rape, incest or woman’s life.” Certainly this means that Americans do not agree with Roe vs. Wade’s allowance of all kinds of abortion.

Roe’s definitive allowance of abortion in a number of cases is what drives conservatives crazy. I found it strange that Manthey says, “So yes, let’s allow the people to decide.” But then immediately he goes into a hypothetical scenario in which Republican senators would, according to Manthey, show their pro-rapist, anti-helping-those-who-have-trouble-having-kids and anti-medicine beliefs, causing a windfall at the ballot box for Democrats.

First, why is it that, in many abortion discussions, pro-choicers go directly to the most extreme cases? Are the main reasons for having an abortion rape or health risk to the woman? The answer is no; they’re not even close, according to numerous polls.

This leads to Mathey’s second and more important miscue; John Stiglich wrote (The Bush Court, 09/09/05), “How confident are liberals that state legislatures will agree with the Blackmun majority?” This means that the people of each state would decide on abortion, not the federal government. This means any Republican or Democratic senator’s views on the issue are almost meaningless. If abortion is made legal by voters at the state level, many conservatives won’t have a problem – democracy will have ruled the day.

Roe took away a fundamental aspect of American politics when it allowed the general right of abortion. It took away the ability for the two opposing sides to find a compromise – something that Americans have been proud of since the beginning of our nation.

Carl Paulus

LSA senior