Patrick Kuehn is right. Pro-choice supporters who follow politics know George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole are anti-choice. The reason this is important is because Bush and Dole have recently side-stepped the issue. Dole refuses to address questions about her anti-choice stance. Bush is trying to pass himself off as moderate when his record shows he is extreme.

An election is coming up, and people not aware that Bush and Dole are anti-choice may interpret their recent lack of statements to mean they are supportive of choice.

It is vitally important to pro-choice advocates that the president of the United States supports a woman’s right to decide when and if to become a mother. Kuehn is naive when he says “no one’s ‘fundamental’ rights are at stake.”

Maybe none of Mr. Kuehn’s fundamental rights are at stake because it appears he is both anti-choice and male.

The president does have great influence over the laws and policies of this country.

Abortion is especially important in this coming election because the next president may have the opportunity to appoint new Supreme Court justices who have the power to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

The majority of the American people believe the decision to have or not have a child is a private one to be made by an individual, not the government.

Therefore, if Americans elect a president they believe to be supportive of choice but is in reality an anti-choice extremist, the results would be devastating.

Heather Wiese Starr

Alumnae

Des Moines