To the Editor:
In “Punishing Women Who Have Abortions” (Opinion, Sunday Review, May 15), Jane Coaston mentions the possibility being discussed in some anti-abortion circles of charging those who have abortions with homicide. There is another way some in the anti-abortion camp speak of punishing women who seek abortions, in this case very ill women — letting them die.
This is not a popular position in the anti abortion movement, but it is a common one. In 1984, Paul Weyrich, an influential conservative activist, stated, in explaining his opposition to exceptions to abortion bans in cases of threats to a woman’s life: “I believe that if you have to choose between new life and existing life, you should choose new life. The person who has had an opportunity to live at least has been given that gift by God and should make way for new life on earth.”
It is possible that extremist politicians from some of these states could block any exceptions in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court. These doctors will face years in prison if they abort the foetus. Women will also die in such a terrible situation.
Carole Joffe
San Francisco
The author is a professor of reproductive sciences, gynecology, and obstetrics at the University of California, San Francisco.
To the Editor:
Policing abortion is a critical problem when it comes to criminalizing it.
New York County abortion trial transcripts in the John Jay College of Criminal Justice archives (1883-1927) show that because illegal abortions invariably took place in private locations — usually the home of the doctor or midwife who performed the abortion — the authorities had to rely on unsavory detection methods.
These included threats to hospitalized victims of botched abortions by threatening them with arrest unless they named their abortion providers and testified against them; making deals with pregnant women who were arrested for unrelated offenses if they agreed that they would help entrap a suspected provider of abortion; and executing elaborate sting operations with police women.
Even with modern surveillance techniques, law enforcement personnel may still have to resort to entrapment in order to prosecute abortion providers in illegal states. I found that jurors can find entrapment distasteful, judging by the surprising number of cases involving abortion. Police officers may also find entrapment demoralizing, demeaning, and possibly corrupting.
Elisabeth Gitter
New York
The writer is an emerita Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
To the Editor:
I’d like to see an article about “How Will We Punish Men Who Don’t Support Women Who Have the Pregnancies.” We are still focused on the women, but now we have the technologies to identify the fathers and expect them to fully support the children they conceive. This would change the dynamics of support, pregnancy and abortion. It would, you bet.
Janice Woychik
Chapel Hill, N.C.
A Piercing Inquiry Into the History of Haiti’s Plight
To the Editor:
Your comprehensive May 22 special section on Haiti, “The Ransom,” was eye-opening. It showed that debt is a tool of the rich comparable to slavery — and has been throughout history.
The special section, however, shows that reparations are not justice. Even if Haiti was paid back by the French government with interest, it would not be enough to compensate for the social dislocations and lost opportunities that were caused by its aggression.
Andrew Oram
Arlington, Mass.
To the Editor:
I had been to many poverty-stricken countries before I arrived in Haiti in 1996. There were some similarities, but the extent and pervasiveness and unreliability of basic physical and governmental infrastructure was something I had never seen before.
It was not surprising that Haitians felt that they had little control over their lives — lives spent in surviving day to day.
How did it all come about? Your series “The Ransom” provides well-researched, convincing answers to that question.
George Santayana warned that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We cannot heed that warning if that past is not known to begin with. Will it continue to repeat itself now that the truth of Haiti’s history is more well-known?
John Cosgrove
Lumberton, N.J.
The writer is professor emeritus at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service.
A Self-Fulfilling Election Prophecy
To the Editor:
Current reports from both Republican and Democratic pundits suggest that Republicans will control the Senate and the House of Representatives in the November elections. They rely on polling and historical results from midterm elections to make this prediction. They might be right, but it is possible they are wrong.
While such a prediction serves the Republicans well, for the Democrats, it’s toxic. An attitude of “it’s all over but the voting” has the potential to discourage Democrats from bothering to vote, turning that presumption into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Mary-Lou Weisman
Westport, Conn.
Source: NY Times