LETTER: Family-oriented society is secure

Editor,

I find it curious that conservatives and the Bush administration are charged with gross negligence regarding quality of life of its citizens, particularly women and children. In a recent opinion piece in the Statesman, conservatives were ripped anew for seeking to impose the punishment of pregnancy and motherhood on women by supporting anti-abortion measures. The author’s labeling of motherhood as a punishment is grossly offensive in its own right, but let me address the larger issue. Conservative ideology, far from demanding intrusive regulation of a woman’s life, does what the left claims it does – granting a woman control over her own well-being. A woman who recognizes that babies and birth are natural consequences of sex controls her own destiny by taking that fact into account and planning accordingly, thus avoiding altogether the question of whether or not to abort a pregnancy.

The column also posited that those who are against abortion are chauvinists. Recent data suggests that more women in the nation are against abortion than for it. Are all these women then chauvinists? No, they are educated women who achieve their life goals by wisely exercising their right to choose – they choose to accept responsibility rather than evade it.

Blanket condemnation of those of the conservative bent and those who oppose abortion is undeserved. The truth of the matter is that conservatives, as do liberals, seek for the betterment of society. The Bush administration promotes stable family units (as well as alternatives to abortion) because history and data illustrate that society is most secure and successful when founded on this basic unit. Security and success promote a high quality of life, not diminish it.

Brooke Ann Smith