Carla Rabinowitz: Column on abortion ‘misses the point’

Jon Huer’s columns are usually intelligent and sane. But this time it sounds as if he doesn’t have a granddaughter, or perhaps even a daughter or a niece.

Comfortable in his own self-righteousness, he misses the point about abortion bans entirely. Opposition to such bans has nothing to do with the possibility that they might interfere with casual sex. In fact, every woman of reproductive age is at risk, even if only one in a 100 is directly affected.

We have a granddaughter. And like any woman of reproductive age, she will never be never entirely safe. Not safe from rape. Not safe from contraceptive failure. Not safe from the miscarriage of a wanted pregnancy, an event which often requires follow-up care classified, in some states, as “abortion.” Not safe from an ectopic pregnancy, which could kill her. Not safe from having to carry a fetus that lacks most of its brain, or suffers from such severe defects that it could not survive more than a few minutes (in terrible pain) after birth. The draconian abortion bans in effect in some states, including her own, would make it impossible for her to protect herself, or to take control of her own life, in any of these cases.

To be charitable in Mr. Huer’s case, I would describe him as merely deliberately ignorant or indifferent. I use different terms for people who know about these issues and support such bans anyway. Please, sir, try to educate yourself a bit before making any more such pronouncements.

Carla Rabinowitz

Royalston