Admonition to Officeholders

People of all faiths should admire and be grateful to Rep. Matthew Martinez (D-Monterey Park) for his response to a question about Mahony’s anti-choice admonition to Catholic officeholders. In the first place, we must carefully adhere to the separation of church and state, so consciously conceived by the framers of our Constitution.

Church leaders of all faiths can issue edicts ad infinitum , but our legislators must make decisions according to their own consciences--their own “responsibility to God,” as Rep. Martinez put it. Their responsibility is to God--and, in the case of pro-choice, to the unborn child--”God’s child,” if you will--who deserves better than the tragic life of neglect and abuse that so many of our unwanted children now endure. Rep. Martinez has surely not overstated the fact when he says: “The worst thing in the world is an abused child.”

MARGOT VISHER

Malibu