Readers Write: Abortion, gun violence, presidential debates

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Lizz Winstead, quoted in “Two Minnesota women alter narrative on abortion” (Sept. 9), seemingly calls us to tell aspirational abortion stories. Regarding her abusive boyfriend, Winstead says she “didn’t know how to get out of that relationship, but I did know I’d never get out of it if I remained pregnant.” A woman in an abusive relationship needs freedom from the abuser. Why do we offer abortion rather than safety from abuse? Death as a solution is no solution at all — it affirms the power of the abuser. Protection from violence should be the priority.

What about other situations where women feel compelled to abort? When an employer threatens the loss of a woman’s job, do we celebrate her abortion to promote her career? I would rather celebrate enforcement of employment laws. If a pregnant woman has nowhere to live, we reason that abortion leaves only one person on the street rather than two. I would rather see her in stable housing.

In my volunteer experience at organizations providing food and social services, people arrive looking for practical support, not abortion. They want food for their children, not one fewer child. They want a job so they can pay for housing for their children, not to have fewer children. They ask for help with Christmas gifts for their children, never saying they wish their children hadn’t been born.

I say this to both sides of the political spectrum: Stop using abortion to divide. Use your time and money for the things we can agree on — safety, housing, food, employment. We can all work on these things. In fact, where I volunteer with “conservatives” and “liberals,” we all love working together because we have a common mission. Regardless of whether you feel abortion should be legal, is it really the priority? I think fulfilling basic needs ranks immeasurably higher. Can we set aside the division and work on these urgent issues? We may find that once we do, our debate on abortion won’t matter anymore.

Adrienne O’Connor, Minnetrista

•••

Abortion advocates have been trying to convince the American public for some time now that abortion is health care. Lizz Winstead and Amy Hagstrom Miller are just two of many people involved in that effort.

Calling abortion “health care” is simply an attempt to mislead the public. A small percentage of abortions are done because of a threat to the mother’s health. Those abortions are accurately referred to a “health care.” According to a 2004 survey by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice organization, about 7% of the women they surveyed who had abortions did so because of health reasons for themselves or the fetus. So, about 93% of abortions are done to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, not because of health reasons.

There is a difference between treating a disease and terminating an unwanted pregnancy. If we want to reach a just conclusion about appropriate abortion policies, we need to think clearly about the subject and not let euphemisms guide our thinking.

James Brandt, New Brighton

In his Sept. 7 column “How many fingers were on the trigger?” Opinion Editor Phil Morris suggests, “There is little point to turning the latest school shooting into another moment decrying the ubiquity of firearms.”

I disagree.

The points, for me, are my three daughters, as well as the lives of all Americans.

My oldest daughter was born in 1999, the year of the shooting at Columbine High School. I remember being home with my newborn and watching the coverage on television, crying.

For the first 20 years of her life, I was able to compartmentalize and turn a blind eye to this issue. But five years ago when there were two mass shootings on two consecutive days, I reached my breaking point and decided to dedicate the next 20 years of her life to gun violence prevention.

Ironically, just during the past five years, my youngest daughter was at the mall for one of those shootings and the State Fair for one of those shootings.

My middle daughter graduated from University of Minnesota in May and now works in a Minneapolis public school. I pray that a child never finds an unsecured firearm and brings it to school.

To say there is “little point” is defeatist, and I refuse to accept it.

In the United States, we have more firearms than people. If more guns kept us safe, we would be the safest country in the world.

Why does anyone need a semi-automatic rifle? And why does a 14-year-old have access to one?

While I admit that commonsense gun laws are not the entire solution, they are certainly part of the solution. Let’s start there. We should not dismiss anything that could prevent this from happening again. Data shows that commonsense gun laws help decrease gun violence. Please contact your legislators regarding gun safety legislation. And if they refuse to act, elect someone else. The children are counting on the grown-ups to keep them safe. They didn’t ask to be here; we brought them here.

Leah Kondes, Minneapolis

•••

I would like to give a personal answer to the question Morris put forth in his column: “Why do so many dangerous warning signs continue to go unheeded?”

I am 75 years old and live in senior rental apartments. I have lived with major depression/anxiety all my life; my mother and younger brother committed suicide. The residents who share this complex are wonderful people, but they are uncomfortable talking about mental health issues. If a few of us stop in the hallway and remark we haven’t seen someone in a while and that person describes their latest medical crisis to the group, everyone will spend time on the subject, perhaps give a hug and wish them well. When someone tells me they haven’t seen me in a while and I explain I’ve been working my way through another weighty bout of depression, they will say it’s good to see me out, and they go on their way.

If adults cannot comfortably talk about someone physiologically suffering through the disease of depression, do we really expect our young folks to have conversations? I think parents should be held accountable because I believe there are always signs that are ignored because the people involved do not want to see them. Instead of a law officer talking to this son and father, since the son had already shown signs of internal distress, maybe someone should have called in an adolescent therapist earlier. I’m not saying that would have stopped it. What would have stopped it would be a child having functional, responsible adults who care enough to be emotionally involved in their children’s lives. And yes, it does matter if an adult brings deadly weapons into the home, because it makes killing so much easier!

Nancy Lanthier Carroll, Roseville

Four years ago, a letter of mine appeared on these pages regarding the presidential election campaign. I expressed the hope for civil debates, and for an eventual gracious winner and a gracious loser. Yeah. What we got was one candidate who was a brutish debater and who later could not admit that he lost, giving rise to a two-month clown show followed by an insurrection.

I doubt that this fellow is going to change either his behavior or his decadeslong belief that if the other side wins, it’s because they cheated. It is rather for us the adults to anticipate this, defeat him in the polls, neutralize his tantrum and move on to better days.

Mark Brandt, Minneapolis