Can’t get a tubal? Try breast implants instead

RE: “Pro-Life, No Choice

06/29/00

This is a very political issue. I prefer to treat my family’s illnesses with “alternative” medicine. I feel very strongly about this, but my insurance doesn’t pay for alternative medicine. The reality is that we pay most of our routine medical expenses out of our own pocket.

In contrast, a lack of birth control or abortion services is of no concern to me, personally. I don’t believe in abortion, and physicians seem to have no training in my method of birth control, the sympto-thermal method of natural planning. I have never seen a newspaper article lamenting that obstetrician/gynecologists are not trained in natural family planning methods.

I sympathize with the woman who feels she must obtain a tubal ligation and cannot. There are people who feel they need chiropractic services, breast enlargements/reductions, tobacco addiction programs, and organ donations, and they cannot find such services in a convenient location for a price they can afford. It would be unfair to lay blame on Catholic hospitals over this one highly-politicized issue, when people all over find their medical needs are not being met in some way by secular hospitals. I don’t hear people trying to discontinue aid to these hospitals.

Julie Vandegrift

 



Leave that pothead alone

RE: “Smoke a Joint, Lose Your Loan

06/28/00

How long will this go on? It is bad enough that they blame major drug addictions on marijuana, but never mention that most youths consumed alcohol before they tried grass. What a scam!

In Holland, where it is legal, people freely use grass, yet it’s a very productive country. Here they are afraid of what it will do to the beer and medical industries. Beer causes you to lose control and become violent. It is bad enough to not legalize it but to call it a worse drug than grass is hypocrisy, which big business is good at. None of them care about the health of the people who consume alcohol, only about the profit. It is total bullshit to make people feel guilty and persecute them for using grass.

Steve Lang

 



Money for Mexico

RE: “La Vida Roca

06/27/00

The notion that denying illegal aliens entry to the US is causing them to become crack addicts seems a bit of a stretch. I certainly feel for people trying to get into the US, but there have to be limits to immigration. Why not use federal funding to help improve conditions in Mexico? Wouldn’t that be a better use of taxpayer dollars than, for example, giving billions of dollars to the Colombian government for the so-called war on drugs?

J.W. Jacobs
Alexandria, Va.

 



Self control or birth control

RE: “Fetal Abuse

06/27/00

How can you possibly argue that using an illegal drug doesn’t neccessarily mean that you’re not fit to parent? If you can’t control your own behavior, how can you expect to control your childrens’? There are enough forms of birth control that drug users shouldn’t be getting pregnant.

Grammy Hilda

 



War on mothers

RE: “Fetal Abuse

06/26/00

Your story is an interesting and sad commentary on the war on drugs. Where there are inequitable prosecutions, there is no equality. Clearly, the focus on illegal drugs, excluding alcohol and nicotine, belies any “helping the kids” arguments. There are many things far more damaging to a growing fetus than marijuana. How about prosecuting the mothers who starve their poor fetus, or the ones who don’t follow basic medical advice?

There are a number of laws being broken here — or at least principles being ignored. Among them are malicious prosecution laws, any law forbidding discrimination on the basis of sex, and the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship.

Don Thompson

 



Sound judgment or censorship?

RE: “Kosovo’s Vigilante Journalism

06/26/00

What is the difference between Dita calling for action (death) against an enemy and Walter Cronkite telling us how many of our friends had died each day during the Vietnam War and showing us very detailed maps of the locations? Timing is the difference, as I see it. I sincerely doubt that Dita caused anyone to think new thoughts. At most, Dita may have made their planning easier.

And here’s another question: If the imposed authorities genuinely felt Dita was provoking violent action, why didn’t these same authorities safe-guard the intended victim? Sounds like a scam to gain support for controlling the press.

Jacob Ashbury