To the editor,
Like many people, I’ve been following the news of sexual and verbal harassment of young women by their mentors — people who had been entrusted to care for them. Young gymnasts and athletes, and now women soccer players.
The lack of action against the men concerned is heart-breaking but all too common. It seems to be part of a bigger picture. We criticize third world countries for their treatment of women, but several developed countries, including the USA, have poor track records, too.
I was so happy to hear of the rallies against the anti-abortion laws recently enacted in Texas. We cannot allow these cynical politicians and Old Testament churchmen to reduce women to possessions with no rights. Roe v. Wade has massive support in this country and that these people are trying to overturn it, bit by bit, is disgraceful.
Nothing can compensate for the horror of rape, many women’s lives have been ruined by it. To force a woman to carry a child conceived by it, give birth and then have to decide on what to do with the baby is tantamount to torture. Hypothetically, would any of these anti-abortion supporters demand their own daughter go through that? I doubt it. Imagine learning an unborn baby is not viable but still having to carry it for nine months. This is craziness. Let’s tell these power-crazed individuals that we’re not willing to go back to the Dark Ages. What’s next? Stoning sinners to death?
Terry Peirce
Naugatuck
