A letter to the editor reminded me how often people conflate opposition to abortion with indifference for a child born to a struggling mother. (“Abortion foes’ concerns about babies are limited” Sept. 2, 2021).
Yet there are agencies, supported by both taxes and donations, that are available to help a woman who has committed herself to an unplanned pregnancy, both before and after the birth; there are family members who step up and help the woman raise the child, often at considerable cost to themselves. There are fathers who, even if the relationship with the mother ends, love and support children resulting from these pregnancies.
People everywhere rise up and lean into the mother and child, both those who oppose and those who support abortion. I have known many of these people.
Conversely, there are families and fathers who pressure a woman to get an abortion she does not want; I have met some of these women. Abortion on demand was weaponized; a pregnancy was ended out of fear of abandonment, not freedom of choice.
There is a story behind every unplanned pregnancy; to typecast those who oppose abortion does not speak to the many people who will help, who will care, whose concerns are not “limited,” but rather deeply involved and committed.
Zoe Gaston
South Portland
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