Letter: On abortion laws

In a letter titled "Work to prevent all child killings," Pam Adamski wrote, "Although gunshot children are tragic deaths, abortions kill more children every day." If CDC believed abortion was the number one cause of death of children, wouldn't they have said so? Abortion kills zero children. Abortion terminates a pregnancy.

The majority of pregnant people want to deliver a healthy baby at term. However, 25% of pregnancies end in miscarriage, also known as spontaneous abortion. Other pregnancies end in therapeutic abortions in late second and third trimesters, and still others end in stillbirths. None of these situations can be characterized as "killing children."

Pam goes on to write that "Any child's death should be considered unspeakable. And all should be prevented." By that, I hope she is in favor of laws that prevent the deaths of children by guns, whether accidental or intentional. I suspect, though, she is more interested in laws restricting or banning abortions.

This is where I think she and all anti-abortion advocates go off the rails. We are a nation of laws, and laws are passed to protect all citizens from harm. For example, we have speed limits to prevent traffic accidents and deaths. Our laws should be for the greater good of society. Gun laws should consider the safety and rights of all Americans over the rights of individual Americans.

On the other hand, laws passed to restrict or ban abortions serve no purpose other than to coerce individual pregnant people to carry a baby to term against their will. Abortion restrictions and bans do not protect members of our society from harm. They are not for the common good. They are targeted against individual Americans.

Diane Niesman

Wheaton