If religious zealots like Craig Ziemba (‘Mississippi’s historic moment,’ Sunday, March 5) have their way, Mississippi will be headed back to the Dark Ages of back-street abortions, and women will be little more than reproductive slaves.

Just because some couples are incapable of having their own offspring, should they be allowed to force other women to have their babies for them? And how does Ziemba explain all the unwanted children in Mississippi alone. According to the Children’s Defense report, there were 455 children in Mississippi waiting to be adopted (http://www.childrensdefense.org/childwelfare/financing/factsheets/ms.pdf).

Of course, Lenny Joiner (‘Us vs. them,’ Sunday, March 5) is just as bad. Both Joiner and Ziemba seem determined to force their religious beliefs on the rest of us. And until Joiner and Ziemba can get pregnant, experience morning sickness, and experience the agony of labor, they really should not have a say over whether a woman can have an abortion.

If you want abortions to end, the solution is simple. Make sure all women have access to the morning-after pill, make sure all women have access to safe affordable birth control, teach teens about safe sex and contraceptives, and get rapists off our streets. (Do you know that most insurance companies do not cover birth control, but they do cover medications like Viagra?)

Until then, women need the right to choose the best option for them. It�s our bodies and our lives that are affected by pregnancy.



Ella Johnson

Meridian