Feminists Have Diverse Views on Abortion

Re “The Thirty Years War,” Commentary, Jan. 22: Leave it to a conservative columnist such as Norah Vincent to equate abortion with misogyny. Orwellian doublespeak it is.

In a free society such as ours, women have a right to do as they choose with their bodies. If men could get pregnant, abortion, without a doubt, would remain legal.

Aaron Albelo

San Gabriel

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I’m a 36-year-old woman who has always embraced women’s rights and empowerment. I’m not an overly religious person (certainly not a fundamentalist Christian), and I am not affiliated with any political party (though I tend to vote toward the Democratic ticket). A couple of my friends had abortions when they were younger, and I understand why, and I still love them. But I have always felt alone in my social circles when the topic of abortion has come up, because I am so unpopularly against it.

When you take away religious philosophizing, take away partisan accusations, take away the standard battle cry -- what do you have? A horrible, horrible crime against a woman’s body and nature. And against her baby’s. It has always struck me as completely illogical and ridiculous that progressive women and men everywhere would call themselves pro-woman but allow the travesty of abortion to continue, and continue well into pregnancy. Thanks to Vincent, I finally feel like I’m not alone in my anti-abortion beliefs as a feminist.

Shelley Frost

Redondo Beach

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If a Republican Supreme Court should overturn Roe vs. Wade, only the poor would be constrained. As always, the well-to-do would continue to have abundant access to legal, safe abortions. Would the American people be comfortable with a prohibitive law that could be applied to only those with limited incomes? Would it be similar to the poll tax that kept the poor from voting ... or the Taliban’s denial of education for girls, which the moneyed classes could circumvent by sending their daughters abroad?

It is true that a lack of money may deny Americans access to quality hospitalization, top legal representation, etc., but these Americans are not absolutely forbidden such things. I see only great unfairness or snarled enforcement of anti-abortion laws.

Marilynn E. Kraft

Dana Point