Letter to the editor

'Pro-life' activist proves selflessness

My daughter has skating lessons at Hunt Arena on Saturday mornings and during that half hour wait, I enjoy reading your newspaper. I feel the need to respond to Tracey Pollock’s “viewpoint” regarding the “pro-life” movement printed in your last issue.

Tracey, in essence, believes that to be “pro-life” is equivalent to being “anti- choice.” That statement is simply not true. I consider myself to be “pro-life” and think I speak for all pro-lifers when I say that we believe that human life is sacred from conception to natural death. PERIOD.

Yes, we are interested in having Roe v. Wade overturned due to the fact that it is unconstitutional. After all, didn’t we all lose ancestors in the Civil War on the “pro-life” premise that African-American slaves were human and that they were eligible to the rights of Life, Liberty and The pursuit of Happiness? (If we don’t protect Life itself then the other rights become worthless, don’t they?)

Tracey seems to think that those involved in the “pro-life” movement do nothing but sit around trying to think of all the ways they can restrict others’ choices. Not true. many of us devote our lives helping women. My pro-life husband (OB/GYN physician in River Falls) wakes up every day and cares for women’s health care needs. As a pro-life family, we donate funds to help women who are pregnant and need help with groceries or rent or baby sup- plies. We have also given six women free room and board in our home who are pregnant and in need, through Share-A-Life.

I guess what I am trying to do is negate the idea presented by Tracey that we “pro-lifers” don’t have “any compassion for the life of the baby after it has left the womb, or empathy for the mother and family of the child.” Also, for the record, many of us “pro-lifers” are against war and capital punishment as well!

Tracey is ill informed as well about “abstinence-only” education in the public school system. Believe me, as a mother of five children who have gone through the public school system, there is no such thing as “abstinence-only” sex education -- they are exposed to it all as early as 6th grade (I mean everything from birth control to STDs) and yes, this has done nothing to help prevent teenage pregnancy. However, do you know that most babies are aborted by mothers who are over 21 years old (American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology)?

I would like to conclude by saying that to be “pro-life” does not mean “anti-choice.” We are not out to eliminate every choice a U.S. citizen possesses: we are simply interested in putting HUMAN LIFE back into the hands of GOD -- where it belongs.

Bobbie Hallman
Pregnancy Help Line