A pro-lifer ponders

About your Sept. 22 “Presently Tense” column, “Degrees of conviction”: You have asked some valid questions, ones that I, as a pro-lifer, have pondered. I don’t think that there are any simple answers, but I felt the need to respond to your column.

I believe not only that the rights of personhood—but life itself— begin at conception (although I don’t believe I can convince you of this).

You asked, “If your side takes over, will you put women and their doctors in prison or to death for abortion?” I don’t have the legal background to answer this question, but I would respond with another question: If the mother of a 1-year-old toddler decides, for whatever reason, that she doesn’t want the child anymore and takes his life, should this woman be arrested and tried for murder? Why would the answer to my question be any different than the answer to your question?

You asked: “So, if your side takes over, will you put women and their doctors in prison or to death for abortion? Will you push to have the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions in the past 40 years face trial for murder? Certainly there can be no statute of limitations on the prosecution of a murder.” A am not an attorney, but I don’t think it would be legal to try a person for an act that was legal at the time it was committed, and the statute of limitations for murder would not come into play here.

Of course, regardless of how I feel on the issue, abortion in this country has been legal since 1973, and in the past 37 years, more than 50 million legal abortions have been performed. I don’t feel this is right, but as long as abortion is legal, there’s nothing I can do about it other than to try to educate women about the truth of abortion and its alternatives, and to work toward overturning Roe v. Wade.

Since abortion became legal in this country, 1.35 million lives per year have been snuffed out. If abortion were punishable by death, how many women per year would be executed? Surely far less than 1.35 million per year. I think that because of the fact that abortion is legal, women considering having the procedure assume that it must be morally acceptable, because, after all, it’s legal. This, of course, is the same attitude that 18th-century Americans had about slavery.

David Schmiedeberg, Mira Mesa

A new angle

About your Sept. 29 editorial, “Action = good”: I live in San Carlos, so the homeless issue is far from me. I do see these people when I go Downtown, and I am a vet, so I know some of them.

I hope you and others who do take up the cause consider that when you put it in fiscal perspective, you get greater attention. Your piece hits home when it explains the costs to the healthcare system when people are homeless.

Please continue your good work.

John Wood, San Carlos

This issue of CityBeat is dedicated to Rosanne Cash for calling House Speaker-to-be John Boehner an “asshat” on Twitter.