Abortion is about life, not religion

Life is the primary right we have as human beings. Without life, there is no liberty; there is no pursuit of happiness. There is no freedom of religion, press or anything else. There is nothing.

Mr. Frankel is correct when he states that religions hold differing beliefs about when life begins, but when he attempts to lay the blame for the unending debate on the "abortion issue" at the feet of religions, he oversimplifies.

Neither science (medicine) nor philosophy has had any more success toward agreement on the moment when life begins. The Supreme Court (Roe vs. Wade 1/22/73) chose to evade the question entirely. "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins … the judiciary, at this point of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer."

Despite this admission, the court did not stop there. It somehow felt comfortable in establishing a system of trimesters (defining stages of life?) determining when it is, or is not, permissible to terminate that potential life.

That same court chose to decide that liberty (a woman's freedom to choose) overrides another's right to a life, which they could not deny might already exist.

If "at this point in man's knowledge" we cannot determine when life begins, we cannot gamble that it has not. If we choose to err, we must err on the side of caution, sparing that potential life.

Bill Toussaint

Arlington Heights