‘Cruel Decision’
President Reagan’s decision to withhold all funds we usually give to the International Planned Parenthood Federation is a disgrace.
It might help him make wiser decisions in this area if he could--just for five minutes--put himself into the shoes of a starving Ethiopian woman who has just discovered she is pregnant. She is hungry, she is sick; her husband is hungry, he is sick; their six surviving children are hungry and sick, two of them near death.
Is our well-fed, healthy President going to insist that this woman bear yet another child, if she should even live until her due date? Does he want to be sure that this woman sees her future child--just long enough to get attached to it, before either she or the baby dies? What kind of inhumanity is this?
We are healthy and well-fed, so we can tell the extreme have-nots of the world how to run their lives? No, Mr. President. This is not our right. These people need our help , not our selfish moral pronouncements and withdrawal of funds.
Who can speak of morals when these people are watching their friends and family die every day? What good are morals when they cancel humanity? The funds just canceled by President Reagan could help thousands of the unborn never be born into the torture of starvation, illness--or, possibly, being the cause of their mothers’ deaths. The least we can give these hard-pressed souls is the right to choose and the funds to make their choice possible.
MARGOT VISHER Malibu The news that the President has used the power of his office to impose his personal views on abortion on all the people of the world is shocking to say the least.
The pro-lifers have been making themselves heard loud and often while the majority have remained quiet on the theory that they, the pro-lifers, are entitled to their opinions and, in America, allowed to express those opinions. But now it has gone too far. Enough is enough. It is time the rest of us lift out of our lethargy and let our voices be heard.
Rise up you silent majority! Write now to your senators and representatives to use the power given them by the people and the Constitution to override this cruel and callous decision. The President’s reelection did not give him a mandate of this kind.
LEONA WICKHAM Los Angeles