Abstinence Is The Answer

To the Editor,

In answering Melissa Fornabia’s letter of 10-14-99, I say nobody, and definitely not our government, forces a teen into motherhood! I guess in the quoted sentence of Planned Parenthood “40 percent of 14-year old girls will become pregnant before they turn 20,” this biggest provider of abortions in USA, included young married women in their number.

A former abortionist, Dr Bernard Nathanson, says: “How many deaths were we talking about when abortion was illegal? I confess that I knew the figures were totally false.” Maternal deaths from legal abortions in the USA from 1973 till 1994 were 118, including a 13-year-old-girl in New York City.

In 1996 alone, PPFA recorded an income of over half a billion dollars, one-third of which was taken out of taxpayers’ pockets. They push explicit sex education programs all over the country.

More than two-thirds of both adults and teens say it is very important for high school students to be given a strong message from society that they abstain from sex. Yet the government spends millions to promote “safe sex” ideology in our schools. Without parental input, officials hand out condoms and pills to kids who then assume they’re expected to use them. Statistics show that the use of condoms isn’t a guarantee against becoming pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease.

Since 1994, more than 2.4 million teens between 15 and 19 have pledged to remain sexually abstinent until marriage.

I wonder how many women know of the study by Dr Joel Brind, that abortions can increase the risk of developing breast cancer by 30 percent to 50 percent?

Ms Fornabia also quotes that most abortions occur within eight weeks of fertilization and that the fetus is not yet a person. Yes? Fetus is the Latin work for “little one.” At that stage, the heartbeat can be heard on an office ultrasonic stethoscope. The heart has been beating for one month. The brain waves were measurable two weeks ago. The pre-born feels pain and responds to touch. He sucks the thumb. She swims with a natural swimmer’s stroke. He grasps an instrument placed in his palm.

How about giving life and putting the baby up to adoption? Mother Theresa wrote: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the great destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

Helga J Roegele

Chestnut Hill Road, Sandy Hook     October 26, 1999