Letters to the Editor Pro-lifers don't understand the difficult choice To the Daily: I must agree with Josh Breitzer ("Abortion is concern for a woman and her doctor alone," 1/20/00) and comment on the vigil held by students for dictatorship, err ... life. What a woman wishes to do with her pregnancy should be her decision and her decision alone. This should not be a political issue. Against abortion? Don't have one. It's that simple. And I am against sentiments that state being pro choice means being pro-abortion. I don't agree with abortion; I think it is wrong for me were I to be in that position (and you never know until you're there). But I will defend a woman's right to do what is best for her and her situation. For those that were in the article that aren't aware of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, women seeking abortions are given graphic information of abortion and fetal development. If the past is to teach us anything, we should know that making abortions illegal leads to "back-alley," unsafe and unsterile abortions. Many women die from these. I wonder what the pro "life" (I must put that in quotes as I am a firm believer in the slogan "what's life without a choice") movement would like poor women to do who face unexpected pregnancies. The Republicans in government - who are basically the anti-choice people, are also adamantly anti-welfare (although its less than 1 percent of the budget). So they say, "You must have this child, but you're on your own for paying to raise it." And with all these programs saying one must work to receive benefits, how is the single mom to raise her infant - not to mention the high cost of child care. All this in a world where fathers just turn around and leave. It's ironic that a party that preaches less government control is trying to control what we can do with our bodies. Aren't our bodies the one thing we should sovereign reign over? I also don't know why religious special interests have so much impact on law makers. Isn't there a separation of church and state? It's also interesting to note how many women seeking abortions are black. If they are to give their child up for adoption, the child is usually not in a very good situation. Most children available for adoption are black, and most families willing to adopt are white. And the foster care system basically will not put a black child with a white family. So what happens? This child is shuffled from foster home to foster home, soon learning not to make any ties as they will be broken soon. I understand why many women would be reluctant to put children through that. When will the quest to save "prospective life" stop? As a woman, I release an egg every month - a prospective life every month. Do you want to harness that to make sure it becomes a new person? Harness the millions of sperm a man makes every day, and hey, we're in business. It seems we're not far off from that. It's time for all this to stop. If you want to stop abortion, it's premature to try to make abortion illegal - make sure there are more viable options. Or else you're killing thousands of women every year - and how pro-life is that? I don't understand why this is still an issue. This should not be a political issue. It should be a choice that women and their partners facing an unplanned pregnancy deal with - not a legislature made mostly of old white men, who, no matter what they claim, can never understand what that feels like to face this very difficult choice. Emily Anne Aldridge LSA senior Letter on abortion contained 'flawed argument' To the Daily: In a letter to the editor printed in Friday's edition ("God's opinion on abortion unclear," 1/21/00), Jesse Herzog writes that God created everything, but that He would not create anything He considers evil. Regardless of your views on monotheism, abortion and other related issues, the argument put forth by Herzog is nonsensical - that is, unless you consider genocide, rape and similar atrocities to be benevolent acts. According to Herzog's reasoning, God created these things, so they simply cannot be evil. This, of course, is absurd and the result of a flawed argument. I emphasize that I am commenting on neither the morality of abortion nor God and religion, but rather the means by which they were addressed in this particular instance. Abortion is an important issue that cannot be clouded by irrational arguments if we hope to ever arrive at a resolution. Glendon Bulter LSA first-year student Bible clarifies God's opinion on abortion To the Daily: In the three and a half years I've spent on this campus, I've heard a lot of people say a lot of things against God, but never anything so blasphemous as this. In response to Jesse Herzog's letter ("God's opinion on abortion unclear," 1/21/00), I would first encourage everyone who actually believes in God to read Rev 10:6, along with Gen 1:31, James 1:17 and a host of other verses to see that what God creates is good and perfect. Note also that Satan, although limited by the Almighty, does have the power to create and to capture human minds (check Ephesians 6:11-12 and II Tim. 2:26). So please, please, when we quote Scripture, let's try to do it in context and not randomly throw out passages. It grieves my very soul as a child of God to know that anyone could possibly think God would institute the practice of aborting human life, especially in its most innocent stages. How is it not perfectly obvious that this practice is not of God, but of the enemy? This notion should be as clear as a bell, unless, of course, you have your own little conception of Him that is not based on God's Word. In which case, you must also create your own heaven and transport yourself there after you die while simultaneously avoiding God's judgement. Then you will have accomplished something. But until then, you accept God's will on his terms or not at all. This goes for abortion as well as every other facet of life. So you want a choice? Your choice is stated in Joshua 24:15. God is a pro-choice God, but not when it comes to pregnancy termination. It's completely up to you. Good or evil? Light or darkness? God's will or Satan's? This is the ultimate choice. Great column, Mike! It takes a lot of courage to stand for what's right! Jennifer Price LSA senior Article did good job of examining complex issue To the Daily: Overall, Marta Brill's article in Friday's Daily on institutionalized torture in Israel did a good job explaining the complex facts and history of the issue ("Israeli human rights activist speaks at 'U,'" 1/21/00). Very rarely do mainstream Western media acknowledge the injustices that are and have been committed against Palestinians on a daily basis in Israel due to Israeli policy and law. It's important that such social injustices - whether committed against Palestinians, Jews, Muslims or Christians - are documented and not forgotten and ignored. There are, however, a few points that should be clarified and corrected in the article. First, the founder of the group Physicians for Human Rights in Israel is Ruchama Marton, not Ruchama Maron, as the Daily reported. Second, the article mentions "the torture of Israeli prisoners" as the subject of Marton's talk. While Israeli prisoners have in the past been subjected to torturous methods of interrogation, this is a rare occurrence compared to the frequent torture of Palestinian prisoners, most of whom do not possess Israeli citizenship. In fact, although the article states that Marton estimates that "between 1,500 and 2,500 people have been tortured" altogether, this number was actually an estimation of tortured Palestinian prisoners over only a few years time - not of all tortured prisoners since the inception of Israel. Despite the few muddled details, I appreciate the Daily's coverage of such an important issue, and I hope the coverage of Palestinian Israeli topics continues, as the issues are very important to the strong Arab and Jewish communities here at the University. Chris Farah LSA student Originally on page 4A in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.