Letter to the Lynbrook/East Rockaway Herald Editor (May 26-June 1)

Posted

My body, my choice? Please!

To the Editor:

The argument about a woman’s right to control her body is confusing to me. It seems to apply only when certain parts of society want it to. They say confession is good for the soul, so perhaps that’s why Randi Kreiss felt the need to share with us that she had an abortion (“Threat to choice has women on the march,” May 12-18). The following week, a reader shared that she’d had two abortions (“Randi’s ‘raised voice for women,’” May 19-25).

I’m happy that this reader was financially and emotionally ready to welcome children after her abortions. If all of our parents waited for that, I wonder how many of us would have been born. That’s not so much a judgment of these two ladies who shared their abortion stories, but more a commentary on our society.

But where were these same courageous people who are defending “my body, my choice” when we were corralled to get the Covid shots? Those who chose not to lose their jobs included firefighters, police, nurses and doctors who had no choice but to work to save all of us. And I would love for someone to explain to me why my family will have to take a Covid test to get back into the U.S. in July after a family vacation. Are there not thousands of illegals crossing our border every day who are neither tested nor made to be vaccinated?

Get ready, people: “My body, my choice” is going to open up a whole new Pandora’s box. Physician-assisted suicide, or “medical aid in dying,” is legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia, and 10 years down the road, or sooner at the rate we’re going, I can bet you, in keeping with the disrespect for human life and the need for doing selfishly what is good for us, we’ll be looking at the following:

Getting rid of elderly parents who have begun to be a financial, emotional and social burden — or a husband who has Alzheimer’s, and whose wife is emotionally drained, can no longer afford to care for him at home and can’t afford long-term care because that will deplete her financial security.

Disabled children, homeless people and then the mentally ill will all be at risk in this disposable society we are creating for ourselves. Many of us are looking around and not recognizing this country that we love so much. The “my body, my choice” movement is bringing all of this to a head.

How dare that reader speak of “religion-saturated politics” and how it should not be allowed to damage this country more than it already has. Spare me your preaching, sister, because you’ve got it all backward.

Jane Dantona Grogan, Lynbrook