Appreciation for Balanced Treatment of Abortion Issues

This is to congratulate everyone concerned on Roy Rivenburg’s strikingly independent dissection of the abortion publicity wars (“Partial Truths,” April 2).

Please be equally ruthless in double- and triple-checking all of our era’s sacred lobbies. One fantastically confusing area that’s been thoroughly picked over while managing to stay uninvestigated is the use of statistics in the political gender wars following divorce. Whose facts on financial inequality, deadbeat parenthood, domestic violence and judicial bias are telling the truth, if anyone?

I know a few veteran editors and readers who’d be eternally grateful for a dossier as doggedly thorough and unflattering to advocates from the left and right as what Rivenburg provided on the abortion warriors. Thanks for reminding us what reporters do.

ALAN RIFKIN

Long Beach