Should Kerry Offer a Plan Against Abortion?

Paul J. Contino is absolutely correct in stating that Sen. John Kerry should seek to reduce abortions (Commentary, Aug. 12). Democrats traditionally are dedicated to helping the helpless and, as Contino points out, Kerry has failed to pledge that he will extend protection to the weakest and most vulnerable -- unborn children. Democrats, of all people, should be pro-life.

Kerry needs to see, from a political point of view, that polls show that the number of those who favor abortion on demand is dwindling because people are becoming aware of what abortion actually entails. He would gain votes by at least taking a moderate stance on abortion since not a single Democrat who favors abortion on demand would go to the Republican Party over that issue.

Charles E. Miller

Camarillo

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I am flabbergasted by Contino’s answer to the abortion issue: that taxpayers support the accidental mothers and pay for the unwanted children’s upbringing. Paul, we’re already doing that in far too many of the cases where women with unwanted pregnancies don’t get abortions. It’s not working very well. Now, if you wanted to talk about a program to push sex education and birth control ... but more taxpayer-funded childbearing? That’s an insane idea.

Jim Houghton

Encino

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Contino has a point, but he misses or chooses to ignore one of the more important points. I personally abhor abortion, but I am also adamantly pro-choice. We as a nation have the highest out-of-wedlock birthrate in the developed world among teenagers. We still choose to believe that if we teach our children nothing about birth control, they won’t have sex. We do not encourage them to use condoms. (There are several sexually transmitted killers out there.) We as a society fail them by giving them little or no information. That is the only way to lower the abortion rate in the country. I wish abortions never happened again, but they will and I support any woman’s right to choose her own future.

Margo L. Allen

Laguna Woods