Abortion debate in America needs to change
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor: In a letter to the editor last September I stated: “I don’t believe either the Democratic or Republican party are pro-life. The Democratic party because of its stance on abortion, the Republican party because of its stances on climate change and gun control among other issues.” Seeing neither party as pro-life does not keep me from seeing good things done by both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans in Wisconsin in recent years got rid of the red ink in our state budget. The Democrats in the house worked for a trade bill that benefits millions of our people. I do not agree with Nancy Pelosi concerning abortion or the anti-Christian ad Jenny Nowak spoke of in her letter. I do not agree with President Trump not accepting Jesus’ words: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” And it would be good to get to the way things were years ago when Democrats and Republicans represented the people who elected them to office and not the head of their political party.
Back in December I received a new set of abortion statistics from National Right To Life. The good news is that the number of abortions has dropped by over 700,000 per year since 30 years ago. The interesting news is that since 1992 the number of abortions has dropped by 34,637 a year under Democratic Presidents and 12,480 a year under Republican presidents. What needs to be done to raise that number under Republican presidents? (If you want to see a copy of these abortion statistics contact me here at St. Anthony’s.) In the Gospel according to Matthew 25: 31-46, Jesus speaks about feeding the hungry. Giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, comforting the ill and visiting those in prison - and that if you neglect to do these things you “will go off to eternal punishment.” Consider the following: approximately 3 million children go to school each day without having eaten and 5.5 million seniors in our country don’t have the food needed to live a healthy life. In parts of Alabama and in Flint, Mich., water quality has been terrible in recent years. They are not alone. We put eight million tons of plastic in our oceans each year and by 2050 our oceans are expected to have as many pounds of plastic in them as pounds of fish. Yesterday I was told that they were building apartment buildings in Eau Claire where the rent would be $2,500 to $3,000 per month while 44 percent of the work force in the U.S. earns less than $18,000 per year. An article on health care compared Canada, France and the United States. Dissatisfaction with health care was 7 percent in Canada, 9 percent in France and 23 percent in the United States. Another article stated that Medicare For All would cost us $34 trillion for 10 years and our current system would cost us $47 trillion for 10 years - while leaving approximately 60 million people uninsured or underinsured. Maybe if we had followed the path Jesus spoke of, the number of abortions would have dropped by 34,647 every year since 1992 and we would be having over 200,000 less abortions per year than we now have.
Patrick Carolan and Brian McLaren, who both work for Vote Common Good write: “We’re already succeeding at reducing abortion rates, and we already know what will reduce them even more. If we shift our energies in the direction of abortion reduction, focusing on the causes and conditions that lead to abortion, everyone will benefit.” For the full article go online to “It’s time to change the abortion debate in America” at ncronline.org.
Rev. Robert A. Streveler Marathon
