Susan Olney
San Francisco
To the Editor:
Tish Harrison Warren took lonely trips to the recycling plant in Texas in the early ’80s, choosing to separate her trash when it was time-intensive and difficult. Now she has curbside recycling every Wednesday. And so it should be with pregnancies, she argues. Make the choice to carry a child to term an easy one: Celebrate pregnant women, provide maternity leave, prenatal care, a road to success for young women with children, etc.
Yes to all of that! But remember: Nobody took away her regular trash can in Texas in the early ’80s. Nobody forced her to recycle when there was no infrastructure to do so. They eventually gave us recycling bins, and now we have a choice.
Kirsten Harjes
Davis, Calif.
To the Editor:
Tish Harrison Warren articulates a beautifully written argument opposing abortion on demand in a society that does not ease the choice to continue a pregnancy. I found myself deeply respecting her view. She does not, however, articulate a fundamental philosophical and moral disagreement that underlies the abortion debate.
That is the question about when an undifferentiated ball of cells in a woman’s uterus becomes something more than an undifferentiated ball of cells. It would be nice if one could draw a clear line at conception, as many do, but in my view that is not the case. For me, we become human gradually step by step. So any line is difficult and arbitrary, but such is the problem of choice in a moral world.
So thus far we have decided as a society to respect individual choice about where to draw that line. It’s a position that I earnestly support in the face of a moral question that has no clear answer.
Stephen Karakashian
Milwaukie, Ore.
To the Editor:
My mother was raised without a mother. My grandmother, after having four children, did not want a fifth. They were Italian immigrants, poor, and could hardly support the four children they did have. Because of this, my grandmother had an abortion. And because abortions were illegal at the time, she went to a back alley abortionist.
She developed an infection but would not go to a hospital because she was afraid she would be arrested, and she died. As a lapsed Catholic, I think abortion is horrible. But I will defend any woman’s decision to have one.
