Letter to the editor: Anti-abortion zealots aren’t guardians of ‘traditional family values’

Re: “Abortion foe broke law in 2015 Planned Parenthood protest, Maine jury says” (Aug. 14):

Staff Writer Matt Byrne needs to correct his description of the Thomas More Law Center attorney who has defended the belligerent intrusiveness of anti-reproductive choice hate-activist Brian Ingalls.

Your reporter wrote that the More Center defends “other conservative and religious causes aligned with traditional family values.” The violation of privacy, which is the premise upon which anti-reproductive rights zealots like Mr. Ingalls act, is not a traditional family value. Federal legislation, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is designed to keep medical information private – beyond harassment and the violation of privacy.

Like every other egregiously invasive action and sense of license that those who seek control over a woman’s body engage in, your reporter makes the same error that centuries of discrediting women’s free will make commonplace: allegations that she must give proof to back up her civil right that protects from invasion of privacy.

In calling the More Center a protector of “traditional family values,” your reporter colludes in that attack on women’s credibility.

Susan Cook

Bath

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