Abortion and ‘Neutral’ Law

After reading two news stories about parents being accused of killing their small children and another about a 15-year-old girl arrested for abandoning her newborn at a construction site (Aug. 12), I again began wondering when our “enlightened” society would begin promoting adoption as a better means of dealing with unwanted children. I began reading Philip A. Lacovara’s article with a sense of relief.

As an attorney, I could see that his arguments had been well-thought-out and researched and, after all, adoption was mentioned as an alternative means of dealing with unwanted pregnancy.

However, when I reached his arguments that fathers should have a right to stop abortions and that the government should have a right to restrict abortions for the poor, it was clear that he was reaching. Both arguments were supported with ridiculous comparisons.

In the end, it was clear that yet another man is, consciously or not, trying to justify the creation of a growing underclass of single welfare mothers raising children they did not want to raise, unable to fulfill their own dreams, or to provide a life of opportunity for their children.

Even pro-choice activists cannot justify the use of abortion as birth control, nor can pro-life activists justify forcing all women with unwanted pregnancies to spend their lives paying the price.

Only when all of us can come together to spend our money and time to promote the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, and to promote the positive aspects of adoption as an alternative, will we be assured that abortion is used as a last resort only.

The fact that we are unwilling to do that prevents us from calling ourselves a truly human nation.

CATHERINE M. ADAMS

Granada Hills