In a letter to the editor Monday, I briefly explained the stance of a large number of anti-abortionists. The letter was in response to the column by Jocelyn Marcus who said there was a problem with the anti-abortionist argument that abortion should be illegal except in the cases of rape, incest and mother endangerment. Her point was that abortions will happen so there isn’t any point to banning them. The purpose of my Monday letter was to explain the anti-abortion stance in a way that would prevent “I’m right, you’re wrong” editorial letters. I thought the average student would get it. First of all, the comments about being a group of people against welfare, Headstart, etc, is way off base. Don’t generalize the anti-abortionists into a larger political group. The Pro-life movement, for example, has a large constituency of Catholics who vote democrat so keep your generalizations to yourself. Mr. Moyle, your comments about needing to take care of the children we have before we worry about the unborn are unsettling. It sounds like you are saying a life on welfare is not worth living. Until we can give disadvantaged children a “good life” we shouldn’t worry about them having life at all. Ask someone at Iowa State who grew up on welfare if their life is worth living. You should think about your argument before you present a stance like that.All life is sacred, Mr. Moyle, including the life of a child conceived from rape, incest and those who put the mother in danger. However, all lobbying groups are faced with two sides of an issue that must meet somewhere in the middle for anything to actually get done. Don’t fault the pro-life movement for having a sense of reality and knowing that there has to be some compromise on the issue. No politician is going to look a raped woman in the eyes and tell her she has to have the child. When someone loses a child to a drunk driver, they don’t push for legislation to ban all alcohol and the production of cars in the United States. They look for ways to decrease the frequency of the occurrence realizing that it will still happen but also knowing that it is for a greater good. Paul Seberger

Graduate student

Electrical engineering