Poverty should be made unthinkable

Richard Kaiser's letter to the Fence Post on Monday was typical of the misguided zealotry often displayed by the right to lifers.

Mr. Kaiser offers readers figures from "a survey done in the 1990s" and then bends them to illustrate his point.

Perhaps your readers should consider the results from an exhaustive study released in 2006 by the Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control.

Among their findings;

• In 2005, 1.2 million abortions were performed in the U.S. ,which was down from 1.3 million in 2000.

• Overall, unintended pregnancies have declined over the past decade. However, unintended pregnancies have increased by 29 percent among poor women and decreased by 20 percent among more affluent women.

• Black women are four times as likely as white women to have an abortion. Hispanic women are roughly two times as likely.

• The abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty line is more than four times that of women living above the poverty line.

• Women with high school or above educations were far less likely to seek an abortion.

• Contraceptive use was far greater among the more educated and affluent. Recent funding cuts in contraception awareness programs and education among poor minorities has significantly increased their likelihood of unintended pregnancy.

Perhaps Mr. Kaiser should refocus his high-minded goals to making poverty and lack of access to good education unthinkable?

Dave Crost

Prospect Heights