Thoughts on Abortion

Thanks for a fascinating article on “The Psychology of Abortion” (by Garry Abrams, Jan. 17). It occurred to me while reading it that the insistence by pro-choice groups on using the terms pro-choice and anti-choice is not just a ploy to use non-offensive wording, but actually an attempt to keep the debate where it should be--not on abortion, but on the right for a woman to choose the direction of her life.

What made me think of this was the story of Jill Lodato, who admits that her first abortion occurred almost without thought, though the second caused psychological reverberations from which she has only recently recovered. It struck me that these reverberations happened not because of the abortion per se, but instead because this woman was forced into making a choice that was not her own. She did not want the abortion, but allowed family and peer pressure to push her into it.

The strange thing is that, after what must be a crushing experience, Lodato would force that same experience on others. She would deny other women the right to choose, simply because their choice might be one with which she (now) disagrees. Actually, it’s not so much strange as sad.

JANICE SINCLAIRE

North Hollywood