Dershowitz on Prenatal Rights

In response to “Drawing the Line on Prenatal Rights,” by Alan Dershowitz, Op-Ed Page, May 14:

With all due respect to Dershowitz, I am appalled by his position advocating state intervention in a woman’s body once she has made the decision to bear a child over having an abortion. I also am a human rights activist, one perhaps who has been silent far too long! I am sure Dershowitz would have a different view on state intervention if the fetus in question was within his male body as opposed to the body of a woman.

No government entity should have the right to dictate what one does with the inner sanctity of one’s body--suggest, educate, recommend, yes, but not intervene. Pregnant women are the first step in government intervention within the privacy of our bodies. Who will be the next target? Diabetics, cardiacs, hypertensives--perhaps only allowed to order from a “special menu” in a restaurant or shop in a “special section” of the market--by state intervention on the individual’s behalf? Once unleashed, where will government intervention stop? Dershowitz has allowed himself to be manipulated by the right-to-life movement and, in so doing, has lost sight of what constitutes a democracy!

SHEILA J. TENN

Reseda