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Don’t tell women what to do with their bodies

After reading Montana Perspectives on Feb. 4 about the new abortion clinic opening, I have to wonder if any pro-abortionists wrote in and were ignored. I’m a woman who grew up in the 1970s and remember when women had back-alley abortions by people who were not physicians. Women were ingesting drugs that may kill her in order to get rid of a fetus that began with rape. Women fought hard for Roe v. Wade in order to give all women the choice to do with THEIR bodies what they deemed fit and to stop the illegal abortions that were killing many of their sisters.

Abortions will still be had whether they’re made illegal or not. They will still happen no matter how many protests happen and how many clinics get bombed.

Until you’re a woman who is in a situation like this, you have no right to tell her what she should do. You don’t know her story. The Supreme Court backs me up on that.

If your daughter was raped by a stranger, or molested by a family member, father, brother, uncle and became pregnant, what would you do? As a mother would you want your 14-year-old daughter to give birth to a child who was conceived after being raped by your husband? I wouldn’t.

There are many stories out there that you don’t know about, so keep your judgmental attitudes to yourself! To all of the people, especially the men out there, protesting women who are doing with their bodies what they deemed fit, how many of you have fostered or adopted children?

Thank you for letting me vent. —Rosie Higham, Kalispell

(EDITOR’S NOTE: There were no pro-choice letters received by the editor prior to Sunday’s publication of the letters in response to our story about the clinic opening. Several letters were received in response to Sunday’s anti-abortion letters, and they are published here today.)

Why those women might be smiling

Interesting that the plethora of vitriolic anti-abortion letters in the Daily Inter Lake are so upset by the women owners of All Families Healthcare smiling.

I have some good ideas about why they are smiling. They might be smiling about being able to recover and open a business again that was violently shut down by domestic terrorism right here in our own valley. They might be smiling about being able to provide immediate and low cost birth control and other medical care to the young people of our valley. They might be smiling because they know that birth control and sex education decreases abortion.

These anti-abortion letter writers should be ashamed of the cruelty of their letters but I imagine they won’t be. The repetition of biblical quotes and of tired anti-abortion myths show that each are written by the same religious fanatics that come out of the closet whenever someone else acts to follow their own different conscience. These fanatics believe that any meanness of spirit or action is justified by their religious beliefs.

I hope the wonderful women in the article are smiling because they know that hundreds of us are behind them 100 percent in this valley and throughout Montana. All Families Healthcare, welcome back and be proud! —Jennifer Allen, Kalispell

Grateful for Cahill, Weems

Here in the Flathead Valley, we are fortunate and blessed to have the opening again of All Families Healthcare with two, highly qualified health practitioners to supply quality health care to women, families and others in our community regardless of their financial circumstances.

Susan Cahill and Helen Weems’ primary commitment is to family planning by supporting women and families to have affordable contraceptives, and a choice, if necessary, to not add to the ever-growing number of more than 4,000 unwanted children in foster homes in Montana, the more than 350 homeless number in our two local high schools, and the other children in our community who live in situations where drugs and abuse are prevalent and care for their basic needs of love, security and nurturance are sorely lacking.

With all that Susan has gone through and yet to continue to come from her heart and stand by her convictions to be of service, with the help of Helen Weems, we as a community should be supporting their efforts with gratitude. —Carla Hannaford, Kalispell

A dark cloud over Whitefish and the nation

It is darker than any cloud inversion or weather front.

It is not about a woman’s reproductive rights.” It is about abortion. Abortion is the killing of a human life. The location of the baby is the protective environment of the mother’s womb. The humanity of the unborn is medically undeniable.

Whenever there is open killing, there are repercussions and effects and we all see them: the death of a baby, the destroyed life of the mother, the missed opportunity for the father to be responsible, the grief of family members, churches that remain silent, medical professionals whose vocation is tarnished, and the list could go on and on.

Why is this so? It is because of this dark cloud. I can attempt to ignore it or deny that it exists. The dark cloud is there just the same.

Abortion cannot be sanitized or sanctified by connecting it to other legitimate medical services. Abortion cannot be couched in “compassion” in order to make it ethically right. It is what it is. As much as I would like, I can do nothing to change the weather. All I can do is pray.

I invite you to pray with me, publicly or privately, for the cloud to leave the community of Whitefish, other communities in Montana, our nation and our world. Pray to end abortion. —Rev. Mark G. Cutler, Kalispell

One bad year

Just a few notes on our country from 2017:

An overwhelming disrespect for the Constitution; open and championed bigotry; incredible amount of lying to the nation’s people; 19 influential Russians, foreign nationals, intimately involved in the 2016 election; money laundering; secret business dealings; Republican propaganda machine, Fox, attacks on American institutions; white nationals parading and being elected to Congress; the incredibly disgusting adulation of the Dear Leader; nomination of totally incompetent judicial appointments and Cabinet level persons; disregard of historical norms regarding operation of the White House; the trashing of American institutions: the FBI, the intelligence services, the judicial courts, the First Amendment; and intently destroying American image in the world. Some dare to call it TREASON. —Dan King, Bigfork