Dr. Aaron Hoffman’s column (“Maine Voices: Women empowered by having access to health care, including abortion,” Jan. 22) is so full of bias and misinformation it boggles the mind. Given only 300 words, I’ll have to pick and choose my examples.

He cites an “independent” report by the Guttmacher Institute. The institute is really nothing more than a megaphone for Planned Parenthood. It’s not independent.

The most serious breach of logic, however, is to claim that the “procedure” (abortion) is “one of the safest medical procedures performed in the United States.”

Has anyone interviewed the babies? In my mind, the “procedure” suffers from a 100 percent death rate. Babies are people, too – half of them women-in-waiting.

Certainly some of the problems that women experience leading to the “need” for an abortion are difficult ones. But “needing” an abortion to finish a degree to embark on a successful career seems twisted when one considers that the victim will never have an opportunity to even begin their education: learning to speak, being potty trained or experiencing and returning love.

Finally, claiming that abortions are nearly 100 percent safe ignores the statistics regarding reduced fertility rates, mental illness problems and a higher suicide rate among those women who have had abortions.

Dr. Hoffman is right that we should discuss the issue. But let’s not discuss it with blinders on.

David T. Melley

Kennebunkport


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