Readers Write: IVF, abortion, foreign adoptions, colorblindness, plastic, Old Dutch potato chips

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

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Editorial writer and columnist Jill Burcum lauded former President Donald Trump as he “put forward a bold new health policy proposal that’s both compassionate and family-friendly: mandating insurance coverage of in vitro fertilization” (“Close the coverage gap for infertility treatment,” Strib Voices, Sept. 6). Republicans have voted consistently against coverage for IVF treatment at both the state and national level, and she notes that Republicans as a party have a “long history of opposing coverage mandates or expansions.” Religious groups oppose IVF because of the concerns about storing embryos or destroying unused embryos, an issue that is closely tied to their abortion stance. It strikes this reader as suspect that Trump, with all his posturing about leaving abortion decisions to the states, now is in favor of mandates for government- or insurance-funded coverage for fertility treatment, instead trying to pull back some of the votes he is losing over the abortion issue.

It might be “bold” for Trump to suggest this health policy but it has a snowball’s chance in hell to come to pass with Republicans trying to outlaw those treatments in many states. I suspect he knows that but is pandering, as he is wont to do.

Paula Swiggum, Eagan

A Sept. 10 letter writer cited the statistic that “only” 7% of surveyed women obtained an abortion for health reasons for themselves or the fetus. Are the lives of those women inconsequential? In states where abortion is banned, those women are being handed a potential death sentence if they are denied abortion care.

I will remind the letter writer that nobody has the right to use your body, against your will, to save the life of another person. Please apply the same basic principle to pregnant women.

Heidi Christenson, Stillwater

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After reading the article “Two Minnesota women alter narrative on abortion” (Sept. 9) along with the provided pictures that appeared in that edition of the paper, I questioned whether the Minnesota Star Tribune’s equality standards will provide the same opportunity and coverage for the pro-life side. Doing so will provide readers a truer understanding of the frailty of life and real procreative rights.

Francis Zeches, Winona, Minn.

The article about China abruptly discontinuing foreign adoptions brought a sense of shock and grief (“China stops foreign adoptions,” Sept. 7).

I adopted my daughter from China 26 years ago. I remember very well the long process of adopting, the waiting and hoping for good news to come. I received a photo of my daughter a week before Christmas and finally met her in February. Those two months were a time of high expectation and anxiety. I can’t imagine receiving the news that, suddenly, without any consideration, you have no hope of ever welcoming that child into your arms and heart. For all those families affected by this abrupt decision, my heart goes out to you.

It seems a cruel and harsh step to deny those adoptions already in process and, in some cases, almost finalized — to suddenly decide to deny them the chance to be a family. Our relations with China are not very strong now, so I don’t know if there is any hope in negotiating a compromise in allowing those currently receiving a referral to be able to adopt. I will hope on behalf of those families that they will some day welcome the child they so desperately want.

Nancy Christiansen, Blaine

In Strib Voices on Sunday I read Maddie Wallace’s comments about her son’s colorblindness and where it has taken her son in life, and I wanted to add a direction that my colorblindness has taken me (“Life through another lens”). Living on a farm in East Peoria, Ill., and not having knowledge of what colorblindness was, I had only comments from my brothers and sisters about the color of my clothing when my shirt or tie didn’t match and regularly had negative remarks or laughter from them. In my third year of high school, my biology teacher, Miss Pyle, opened the class book and asked me to read out loud what the colored dots said. If you were colorblind, they read “onion,” and the dots if you weren’t colorblind read “color.” I immediately said “onion.” The teacher said loudly, “Dummy!” The class all laughed and my face turned red, I’m sure, not understanding what I said wrong.

Several years later when the military draft came for me, I read in the local newspaper that colorblind people weren’t allowed in the service. I boarded a bus for Chicago to take my exam for conscription-draft and expected rejection and a likely return to Minnesota to resume my civilian life. The Army inspector asked me what I did in my job, and I told him that I did some construction work. He immediately stamped “accepted”! Much to my shock, two weeks later I was on my way to Army basic training and afterward was put into a construction battalion, where I served the rest of my military career. I eventually served the last part of that career in Vietnam.

My vision of the world was and is different than people who aren’t colorblind, not safer but much different. I observe traffic lights by the position of the light — top is red, meaning “stop,” middle is yellow, meaning “caution,” and bottom is green, meaning “proceed.” We colorblind folks see differently, but life goes along very well.

Lee Waldon, Buffalo

Thank you to the Strib for reprinting the Associated Press’ “World produces 57M tons of plastic waste each year,” handily after last week’s letters to the editor expressing concern about plastic waste generated at the Minnesota State Fair. Not long ago, food and beverages served at large events came in paper containers.

Those of us who pay attention know landfills are growing. It seems such land can’t be used for housing or become farms or pasture. In other words: It’s lost. We have some control over air and water pollution: We can plant more trees to help the planet, and we can consolidate urban growth to an extent, but Earth will not grow more land anytime soon. And recycling? Does anyone seriously believe all items tossed into labeled public recycling bins and picked up later by contractors really get recycled and aren’t thrown together with everything else?

The only way to control waste is not to create it, but failing that, to make sure as much as possible is biodegradable, which brings us to paper or wood everything. A December 2023 letter to the editor reiterated that “the metro area produces about one ton of trash per resident each year.” We are adding to “one of the greatest environmental and health issues of our century,” as the letter continued, as plastic is now in our bodies. We are also sticking ourselves with disposal transport costs and higher land values, leading to higher taxes. We need to connect with our moral values, ask why we refuse to accept limits on wasteful behavior, and meditate on if we love future generations enough to do the right thing because that’s what life requires — not doing the easy, convenient thing, but doing the right thing. Every time.

Linda Huhn, Minneapolis

Thank you for the Curious Minnesota article about Old Dutch potato chips (“Old Dutch chips started in St. Paul,” Sept. 8). It reminded me of my 14-year-old self and my girlfriend walking home from school every day passing the factory that made Old Dutch potato chips. We were always hungry at that time of the day, and the smell was so intoxicating. We plotted a way we could get free potato chips. What if we went inside and said we were doing a report for school? Would they give us a tour and end it with a bag of potato chips? Sadly, we never found out what would have happened. We lacked the courage to enter the building. But, here I sit, 70 years later, with a bag of Old Dutch potato chips on my desk. You can’t eat just one! Thanks for the memory, Strib!

Sandra Haegele, Orono