Letters to the Editor: I was an unwanted child. Our stories matter in the abortion debate

To the editor: The most important thought in Nicholas Goldberg’s column on the 50th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade is that “children should be born to parents who want them and can care for them.”

Forgotten in all the arguments over abortion is the plight of unwanted children. Each of us who once felt disposable or like garbage has tales to tell. If we survive, those stories become hidden under a guise of normalcy. Nobody is ever interested in hearing our unique stories.

Regardless of what else a survivor is able to accomplish in life, there is no “delete” button to conveniently erase past horrors and memories. My grandparents saved my life. I was one of the lucky ones.

The first step in ensuring that there are fewer unwanted children is to guarantee each woman the right to control all decisions about her own reproductive system.

If the antiabortion folks truly believed in the sanctity of life, they would pay attention to the quality of life that unwanted children must endure. So far, children have been the forgotten component in all the arguments about abortion. That needs to be remedied.

Betty Rome, Culver City

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To the editor: While Goldberg is addressing a serious matter, I had to laugh when I read his complaint that antiabortion activists “tried to humanize the so-called unborn.”

While the unborn could be called a zygote, a fetus and even a baby, there is no doubt that it is precisely human during all those stages. It may be unwanted, but from the first moment it has all the markers needed to make it part of the human race.

It’s a pro-choice strategy to dehumanize the unborn with euphemisms so that the snuffing out of a growing person can be made more palatable.

Eduardo Delgado, Moorpark