In your Feb. 28 editorial tribute to Dr. C. Everett Koop, you indicated that, while noted for his opposition to abortion, in researching the matter, “he stuck with the facts, the evidence failing to show abortions are unsafe.”
Dr. Koop’s January 1989 report dealt mainly with the psychological effects of abortion and indicated that, at that time, there was insufficient evidence to determine whether abortion posed a psychological risk for the mother.
Since then, at least nine large studies from six different countries, including the U.S., have found that women who abort are more likely to experience suicide, depression, anxiety and substance abuse.
Abortion is also physically harmful to women. The Centers for Disease Control’s recent report indicated that from 1973 to 2008, 403 women died from “safe” legal abortions.
Besides short-term injuries, medical studies have indicated that abortion can have long-term effects.
Fifty-five of 70 worldwide studies find a link between abortion and increased risk of breast cancer. From 1970 to 1989, ectopic pregnancies in the U.S. increased almost four-fold, coinciding with the general increase in abortions.
Some 127 studies find abortion increases the risk of prematurity in subsequent births. The government reports that 36.5 percent of all infant deaths in 2005 were related to premature births. Children who survive are more likely to experience retardation, cerebral palsy, respiratory and digestive problems and vision and hearing loss.
For the sake to women and their future children (wanted and unwanted), let’s stop promulgating the fiction that legal abortion is safe.
Raymond Adamek
Kent
Fair target for drone
It amazes me that I keep failing to hear anyone else make the single most important point about our drone attack on Anwar al-Awlaki.
I would say that objections to killing him because of his rights as an American citizen are a pile of horsefeathers. In my opinion, he threw away such rights when he helped al-Qaida against us, committing such high treason that he became fair game for our drones.
With the sequester now in effect, dropping our Persian Gulf contingent to only one aircraft carrier group just when we should up it to three, let’s welcome whatever we can get for the security of the country.
Don F. McClish
Stow
No amnesty for illegal immigrants
What happens when illegal aliens, from any one country, become a majority instead of a minority?
Forget that more will come. I’m talking about Mexicans who are already here, Muslims who are here.
The birth rates of these groups are overwhelming the births of natural-born citizens. Like the Cuban population in Florida, these foreign peoples soon take over the politics in their host country.
With this influence comes an alien political view that doesn’t agree with our fundamental constitutional views. We will soon be forced to mesh our constitutional views with foreign value systems contrary to our political principles.
Further, immigration in the U.S., by legal means, has always examined criminal backgrounds and serious diseases, so our health was protected.
Giving amnesty cannot protect our health. It does not protect the U.S. economy from overpopulation, affecting our jobless rates.
Our forefathers fought a revolution so we could enjoy our constitutional protections. It’s up to these alien groups to go back home and fight their own revolutions to make their country of origin work for them and their ideals.
We cannot do that for them. They are taking the cowardly and criminal way out, and we just cannot afford to condone that with any kind of amnesty program. We cannot allow our elected officials to buy votes this way, either.
Theresa M. Shimp
Akron
