The abortion debate today; placing the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; California’s GOP Senate race

Words we choose

Re “Framing today’s abortion debate,” Opinion, May 29

How about changing the names of the two opposing positions? Instead of “pro-life” versus “pro-choice,” how about something like “pro-choice” versus “forced pregnancy”?

After all, doesn’t “forced pregnancy” really capture

the spirit of antiabortion sentiment, which is that

women should be required to submit their bodies to a usage mandated by government or other people, and that the rights of the unborn should take precedence over the rights of the already born (if she is female)? Named this new way, I wonder how the poll numbers would change?

Lavinia Wohlfert

Laguna Niguel

It seems that Nancy L. Cohen is an expert when it comes to dancing around the issue. I’m just not sure whether it’s a waltz or a tango.

It cannot be logically argued that endorsing a woman’s right to choose an abortion equates with the professor’s statement that “between life and choice, life should win every time.” (Her emphasis.)

Cohen’s disdain for Sarah Palin seems to have blinded her to the biological fact that human life begins at conception.

Bill Loughlin

Glendale

Placing the blame

Re “Target D.C., not BP,” Editorial, May 31

Yes, the BP gusher should prod the Obama administration to reverse its dangerous policy of allowing expanded offshore drilling.

But it does not follow that BP should be given a pass because “human error can lead to disaster on any oil rig, owned by any company, at any time.”

BP is responsible for the disaster and should be held accountable. The company recklessly proceeded with extreme deepwater drilling that far exceeds the ability of industry to control problems, failed to invest properly in safety, pushed regulators to authorize shoddy drilling plans and failed to oversee its contractors sufficiently.

BP also has one of the worst environmental and safety records of any oil company operating in the United States. According to our research, BP has pled guilty in just the last few years to two crimes and paid more than $730 million in fines, penalties and settlements for environmental crimes, willful disregard for workplace safety and energy market manipulation.

The BP boycott is a way for consumers to hold this oil behemoth accountable.

Robert Weissman

Washington

The writer is president, Public Citizen.

The Times is correct in labeling as misguided calls for consumers to take their frustration out on BP stations, most of which are independently owned. However, your argument that President Obama should abandon his call for expanded offshore production is also lacking in logic.

We understand concerns regarding offshore drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon incident. But just as we do not permanently shut down our highway system or our space program in the wake of one tragedy, we should not do so when it comes to offshore oil and natural gas.

Limiting the supply of affordable energy would affect every American family and the hundreds of thousands of jobs the industry provides. The Gulf of Mexico region, already experiencing serious economic consequences from the spill, would be burdened with additional losses.

Even as other forms of energy are being developed, we still need the oil and natural gas produced offshore, and we will continue to need it for decades to come. The answer lies in a greater commitment to safer offshore operation. Policymakers should be leery of any approach that has unintended consequences.

Erik Milito

Washington

The writer is upstream director, American Petroleum Institute.

It is true that station owners are not responsible for the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. However, for your editorial to posit that people’s ire should directed at Washington rather than BP is wrongheaded, ill-conceived and irresponsible.

BP drilled the well. According to published reports from persons on the platform, BP pushed work and overrode safety concerns because the well was over schedule and over budget. The resultant blowout is not an “accident.” It is the result of BP placing money above human life and environmental concerns. We cannot let BP off the hook here.

If finger-pointing is inevitable, then we must direct it first at ourselves and our energy-fat lives, then at BP for acting as dealer to our petroleum habit. Washington merely reflects our individual and corporate incoherence. Asking D.C. to fix everything is avoiding our own responsibilities.

Chuck Richardson

Altadena

Time to pay the piper

Re “The bayou workers and the tax man,” May 30

Should we feel sorry for the woman who says she earned $800 a week in cash and did not declare it? Should we feel sorry that the people who lived in their “own little world” could now be caught by the tax man?

I don’t. I declare my income and pay my taxes every year.

Now they want compensation from BP. Now they want the U.S. government to solve the oil leakage problem.

Well, it’s time to pay the piper. It’s time for them to stop thinking that our laws don’t apply in their “own little world.”

My advice to BP: Stick to your plans. You have enough work to do. You don’t have to cave to people who think they deserve compensation for loss of incomes they can’t prove.

Cheryl Sullivan

Winnetka

Words have power. You have continually referred to the tragedy in the gulf as a “spill.”

A spill is what happens when my son pushes over his glass of milk. This would be better described as a hemorrhage.

Robert Lentz

Sylmar

Polls and GOP politics

Re “Whitman gains, loses in new poll,” May 30

Jerry who?

Based on the TV ads I see every day, I thought there were only two candidates for governor, Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner — both liberals.

Ed Brand

Valencia

According to The Times poll, the only Republican Senate candidate defeating our increasingly unpopular incumbent, Barbara Boxer, is Tom Campbell, with 45% of the vote to Boxer’s 38%.

However, his zillionaire Republican opponent for the nomination, due to her unlimited resources, TV blitz and ideological flip-flop pandering to the ultra-right wing of our party, is polling ahead of Campbell, who is also the most qualified person in the race.

As a former member of the Los Angeles County Republican Central Committee, I am appalled. We are again committing political hari-kari by ignoring the No. 1 goal of elections — winning — in favor of ideology and letting oodles of money try to buy an election.

Don’t let it happen. To quote Vince Lombardi, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

Kenneth Schechter

Pasadena

It’s just unconstitutional

Re “Who should the census count?,” Opinion, May 29

The Op-Ed by Richard Greener and George Kenney was utter nonsense.

Section 2 of the 14th Amendment plainly and unambiguously provides that “representatives shall be apportioned among the several states” by “counting the whole number of persons in each state.” That’s the whole number of “persons,” not citizens or eligible voters.

There are good reasons why the Constitution requires that we apportion seats by population. Two states with equal populations need and deserve equal representation in Congress, even if one is chock full of middle-aged voters and the other has more nonvoters such as children and immigrants.

If Greener and Kenney disagree, they should attempt to amend the Constitution.

What they should not do is mislead your readers by suggesting that the Constitution would permit their so-called census reform law.

Joseph Fishkin

New Haven, Conn.

The writer is a Ruebhausen Fellow, Yale Law School.