Letters to the editor Oct. 27

LR-131 is not pro-life

I am a family medicine doctor from eastern Montana who loves delivering babies. The majority of the time the labor and delivery room is a vibrant place, but this is not always the case.

Babies die. There are medical conditions that cannot be treated with even the most advanced medical resources. When difficult medical situations occur, parents deserve the right to make the best decision possible for their newborn under the private guidance of their medical team. Parents may decide to provide comfort care. Comfort care focuses on giving the parents the maximum amount of time with their cherished newborn baby, by immediately placing the infant in the loving arms of its mother.

I personally have been involved in many comfort-care situations. I am not a murderer, nor a criminal. But LR-131 would make me one.

If passed, LR-131 would mandate health-care workers to perform futile medical interventions on any newborn with a heartbeat: interventions like CPR, placing a breathing tube, and being placed on life support machines. Failure to comply would lead to $50,000 in fines, up to 20 years in prison, and “homicide” charges.

LR-131 robs mothers of precious minutes with their dying babies. It criminalizes the doctors who took an oath to do no harm.

LR-131 is proposed to take a political stance and for our legislators to further polarize political parties. LR-131 was written to get average non-medical Montanans to vote political lines and support a bill they view as “pro-life.” LR-131 is not pro-life: it is quite the opposite. It has significant ability to hurt a lot of Montana families, and babies, and to make medical providers afraid to practice compassionate and humane medicine.

Vote “no” for LR-131.

— Dr. Kena Lackman, Polson

Trump policies worked

I guess the chaos of the current election season has finally got to me. Today, I actually heard the human puppet masquerading as the current president of the United State claim that the Republicans were drafting legislation to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits for all Americans.

This lie is just another way the Democrats are trying to disguise the failed policies of the current administration in power with false accusations and outright misrepresentations. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the results of the actions that this administration has taken to stop production of U.S. oil and gas, open the southern border which has allowed Mexican cartels create a distribution network exposing Americans to the deadly drug, fentanyl, allow the expansion and production of Chinese goods and services that have caused massive inflation throughout the economy and growing profits to Chinese companies with probable connections to government families. I could go on and on.

While I am not supporting the election of former President Donald Trump, I certainly support the policies and platforms he implemented. For those of you that are never-Trumpers and would never support him, keep in mind that this is not a popularity contest. His policies supported the Second Amendment (guns can’t harm without kooks pulling the trigger), a constitutional Supreme Court, a strong police force keeping law and order with strong prosecutors and judges, a strong military and the veterans who have fought and died for the republic we live in, the flag you can’t find in a Democrat rally, a freedom to worship and a pursuit of the American dream.

These issues are not mentioned in a Democrat campaign Ad or speech. What issue is presented as a reason to vote for a Democrat is, you guessed it, the right to choose whether an unborn baby is allowed to live or not.

Finally, I would like to question the rational of a couple of former statewide Montana office holders, whom I supported during their service to Montana. Their editorials have caught the attention of many Montanans with their lack of support for Republican candidates and issues with their rational based upon the actions of former President Trump.

Thank you to those that wrote letters in response to the opinion pages offered by former Gov. Racicot and Secretary of State Brown. Their true colors are showing as they support Democrats promoting policies of the far progressive left that are totally out of step with Montanans and our families that so strongly supported them in the past.

God bless America.

— Greg Barkus, Bigfork