Who’s Ruining Whom, Anyway?

And what if Murphy Brown had decided to have an abortion? What would the so-called media watchdogs, riding the coattails of a high-profile controversy, have said then?

What is frightening to me is that those who watch for a breach in family values liken Sharon Stone’s character in “Basic Instinct” to Murphy Brown and “Roseanne’s” Becky Connor. Characters who are allowed, through the influence of Diane English and Roseanne Arnold, to make their own decisions are lumped into the same category as a bisexual slasher-flasher, clearly not the product of a forward-thinking woman.

A woman’s measured and difficult choices about her reproductive possibilities are compared by watchdogs to a character who represents male fantasy more than female fortitude.

If Murphy had had an abortion, there would have been a great outcry. But she didn’t, and guess what? There’s been a great outcry. It has never been more clear that the antiabortion movement is not about saving babies, but about imposing the opinions of a few on all American women.

In my family, family values meant you learned how to be a decent, tolerant and respectful human being. I hope there are a few other families like mine.

ANDREA KALAS

Santa Monica