Letters to the Editor, Cont.

Abortion dilemma centers on when life begins

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

In her Op/Ed column, "Legislation won't stop abortions," Kathleen Waddell states that "no matter what we do or say, abortion will never go away." Does that mean that we should legislate to make abortion legal? Change the word to "murder": "no matter what we do or say, murder will never go away." It does not follow that because murder happens, we should make it legal.

The key issue in the abortion debate is whether there is a life in the womb. If there is, exchanging the term "abortion" with "murder" is terribly apt. Most in favor of abortion will assert that it is not a life, but when asked to determine the moment a fetus becomes a living baby, they are incapable of giving a coherent answer.

From its first moment the fetus, if left alive and unimpeded, has the potency to develop into a human. We were all, at one point in our developmental lives, fetuses. To argue that because developmental disorders and miscarriages occur there is no moral issue at stake with regard to abortion is untenable.

Bears eat their young; do we therefore permit mankind to do the same? Because something occurs in nature does not entitle us to do that very thing with impunity. That type of reasoning leads us to conclude that because people die, we can go ahead and murder them. If an act is inherently unjust, it must be legislated against, regardless of the fact that it will continue to happen.

People may decide to continue killing the children in their wombs until the end of time. Precedent of this kind has never been a justification of the unjust act.

Doug McCauley.

Richmond.

Women's rights are under attack

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

On Jan. 22, we celebrated the 39th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade , which ruled that the right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution protected the right of a woman to choose to continue a pregnancy or have a safe and legal abortion. Today, we face a grueling year of anti-choice political maneuvering that will likely have dire effects on women's health.

Recently, the Virginia Legislature passed emergency legislation mandating that the Board of Health regulate first-trimester abortion providers as though they are hospitals. No other outpatient clinics are subject to this legislation. Many abortion providers in the state could be forced to shut down due to the impossible standards set by these new regulations.

In the House of Delegates, Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, has proposed legislation that would grant the rights of "personhood" to a human embryo at the moment of conception. This legislation puts the rights of a cluster of cells before the rights of the woman whose uterus contains those cells. This legislation is an attempt to pass a trigger ban; if the Supreme Court were to overturn precedent decisions made around abortion or birth control, both abortion and birth control would be made illegal in Virginia.

The implications are horrifying. If perfectly safe abortion providers are no longer able to perform abortions, then women with unintended pregnancies are going to return to dangerous methods that were used before the Roe ruling. Women must take a stand. We cannot and will not sit here while legislators threaten to take away women's health coverage and care we fought so hard to win.

Dory Klein.

Richmond.

Where is Virginia's renewable energy?

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

In response to Hugh Keogh of Virginians for Reliable Energy's Op/Ed column, "Sound policy: All of the above": If we were really getting solar and utility-scale wind energy in Virginia, I could agree with this approach. In reality, solar and wind energy is all talk and no action.

We're being promised progress and getting none. We're paying Dominion Power $76 million over two years to meet a voluntary renewable standard for which we are not getting clean energy, jobs or economic development. Virginia's Renewable Portfolio Standard is all show and is not producing what an RPS is supposed to produce.

If you are a Dominion ratepayer and you don't like paying Dominion for moving paper around you need to speak up to your legislator. Virginia's weak renewable portfolio standard is being gamed and being made weaker in this session of the General Assembly.

Just imagine if we invested $38 million per year in solar panels. It would mean jobs, economic development and clean energy.

Susan Stillman.

Vienna.