Fargo Moorhead LIFE Coalition
<< Archive directory
<< l.i.f.e.letter
Forum puts letter on hold
Students here at home deserve to
be heard on anti-abortion stance
Spring issue 2006
The following letter to the editor was sent by email to the Forum Editorial Page Editor Jack Zaleski on February 1. After a month or so, I called to see if it would be published. Mr. Zaleski said that the paper had not received the letter and to send it again.
Student speakers at Civic Auditorium |
So, I did on April 4. I again waited. No letter to the editor by this writer was published. I called again and was told again that the paper had not received the letter. “Such is the world of electronic communicaton,” Mr. Zaleski said. I sent the letter once again, this time by email, but also by fax and regular mail. I waited a few more days, and asked what the status would be.
“The editorial board will be reviewing it probably today,” Mr. Zaleski said. I waited several more days and called on May 8. “I was out of town and the editorial board on Wednesday should be reviewing it,” he said. To date the letter has not been published. This is the letter.
Dear Jack Zaleski:
Thirty three years ago on January 22 the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in America. In recognition of this anniversary, the Forum carried an opinion piece in its Sunday edition by Jane Ahlin, English adjunct instructor at Minnesota, headed “Abortion debate shifts when it’s close to home.”
Noticeably lacking in that issue were opinions countering that pro-choice view.
“When the Roe v. Wade decision was handed down on Jan. 22, 1973,” she wrote, “the case was decided as a privacy issue, but the growing sentiment of the nation at the time was that women should be in charge of their own reproductive lives. People were tired of the sexual double standard and tired of the hypocrisy surrounding contraception and abortion.”
Forum could provide balance
The Forum could have later provided balance if it had taken the time to report another point of view given Sunday on how the abortion debate shifts when it’s close to home, namely, right here in Fargo.
A number of students from local schools at noon Jan. 22 at the Civic Memorial Auditorium took part in an essay reading contest sponsored by LIFE Coalition, a pro-life organization based in Fargo, on the subject, “How does legalized abortion affect you and society?”
Here are some representative quotes from those excellent essays. Listening to their perspective, one wonders if it is not the “pro-choice” advocates that have a “sexual double standard” (for instance, men have no say in an abortion decision) and who instead engage in “hypocrisy” (they want to be in charge of their reproductive lives, but deny that choice to the emergent male or female by aborting that person).
What they said on legalized abortion
Listen to what some of our seventh graders had to say on the subject of abortion:
“My mother said you will never love anything more than your own child. You should give all children life,” said Kaila Vrie, Sullivan Middle School . “Think if Thomas Edison’s mom aborted him. We would probably still be lighting our houses by candle. My point is, if there are empty desks in a classroom, the kid who isn’t there could have been the person who found the cure for cancer.”
Her classmate Whitney Krabbenhoft had this to say:
“Abortion. That single word frightens me! Over 45 million lives have been lost to this fateful decision. It is astonishing that people can kill an innocent child just because they chose to have sex even though they knew they did not want children. Abortion is legal, but that does not mean it is right... I think of abortions as cheating me out of a friend, a classmate, or future acquaintance.”
“Unborn babies are dying by the millions,” said Nathan Jahnke, Grace Lutheran School. “We should stand up for them. Just because they can’t talk or do anything else doesn’t mean they should be killed.”
Listen to what Rachael Winter, Grace Lutheran School, had to say:
“Legalized abortion affects society in tremendous ways. Dr. Anne Speckhard [adjunct associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School] did a study and found out that after 5 to 10 years 54 percent of mothers who had an abortion had nightmares, 81 percent had preoccupation with their aborted child, 34 percent had perceived visitations with their child and 96 percent felt that they killed a human. It says in Job 10:8, ‘Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me?’
“Abortion affects men a lot. It does not effect them physically, but affects them because they don’t have a say if the baby gets to live or not. I think that abortion affects children the most. Abortion rights supporters promised that if legalized abortion was passed fewer teens would become pregnant, child abuse would drop, children would live in homes that could love and support them, also crime rates would drop. But the opposite has happened. Abortion is now an excuse to have unsafe sex and for violent murder.”
Her classmate Laura Freitag observed:
“On January 22, 1973 abortion became legal. Now every 20 to 25 seconds, an unborn baby is killed. In one day 4,000 unborn babies are killed... The fetus is a living organism and a precious gift from God. We need to tell women that there are choices in life other than abortion. Go find them and stop doing abortion.”
And finally, hear what 10th grader Jordan Hogness of Park Christian School said:
“Imagine a society where murder is legal, even acceptable. Imagine that this society commits genocide on a massive scale while claiming to be among the most advanced and moralistic people on earth. Imagine the depravity and moral decay that must pervade this society. Now look around. This society is our own.
“If you haven’t guessed by now, the tragedy to which I refer is abortion. When it becomes acceptable, even preferable to end a life often for the sake of sheer convenience, what does that say about our society? How can we as a people claim to be fair and just enough to intercede in foreign problems when abortion continues unabated in our own land? ...Abortion desensitizes us to violence and tragedy, and vastly cheapens the value of life. If aborting infants is acceptable today, what will be acceptable tomorrow?”
Hopefully, the Forum will cover such readings next year. Fairness merits that.
Sincerely,
James Horsley
Communications director
LIFE Coalition
701-237-5062
Hats off to Sally Casey
Hats off to Sally Casey, our treasurer, for all the talent, time and love she has given to LIFE Coalition. We are truly indebted to her.
The Board of Directors, LIFE Coalition