In Wednesday’s paper, we had two excellent, well written letters to the editor. Both Jason Iwig and Jessica Meisinger presented respectful, intelligent sides to a very popular and controversial subject: abortion. I would like to encourage the students of Iowa State to continue this discourse in an intelligent and respectful manner. As we have seen time and time again when these issues come up, name calling and bashing each other doesn’t help either side.

I agree with Mr. Iwig and I think that the prosecutor in the Peterson case did the correct thing in charging Mr. Peterson with two counts of murder. The outcome of this trial will set an interesting precedent. It also really asks us to examine what we believe about abortion. Why is it not a crime to have a partial-birth abortion, in which a baby that would otherwise live is killed by stabbing it in the skull with scissors and sucking it’s brains out, but it is a crime to give birth to a baby and then throw it in the dumpster?

I am posing this question in all seriousness. Why is one method of disposing of an unwanted child accepted in our society but the other one isn’t?

It would seem to me that throwing your child in a trash can is a healthy and cost effective way of disposing of an unwanted baby.

By throwing your child in the trash, you allow your body to give birth naturally and you don’t have to pay any fees. In both situations, the child is dead and ends up in some form of disposal system. What’s the difference? Why is one method of infant disposal acceptable and the other one not?

I am going to have to respectfully disagree with Ms. Meisinger’s association of being pro-choice with pro-woman. I am 100 percent pro-woman. Women have been oppressed for much too long and while progress has been made, we still have a long way to go. However, I fail to see the connection between pro-woman and pro-choice.

Women have the freedom to decide if they want to have children or not. This freedom came about with the full understanding of a woman’s reproductive cycle in the forms of natural family planning and birth control. Women have the freedom to choose to be pregnant or not, without killing their children.

I would now like to pose the question to someone who is pro-abortion, when is it acceptable to kill an infant? Should it be prior to its heart beat at 21 days? Prior to the formation of fingers, toes and limbs at 10 weeks? Prior to survival outside of the womb?

Do they issue death certificates for aborted children like they do for stillborn children?

Elissa Eibes

Junior