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Dear Editor;
The pervasive, ongoing gun violence surrounding us has caused me to wonder why the pro-life advocates, who claim deep concern for the unborn aren't screaming out in favor of stricter gun control? There really isn't any difference between protecting the life of an unborn child and protecting the life of an innocent second grader sitting in a classroom, yet the supposedly pro-life, anti-abortionists are not demanding safer gun laws.
There is a curious disconnect between the warmly life-cherishing rhetoric opposing abortion and the cold indifference regarding the loss of innocent life that occurs every day as a direct result of this nation's refusal to do anything about its warped, uniquely permissive gun laws. My guess is the reason for this hypocrisy is that pro-lifers who are silent on the gun control issue aren't really pro-life at all - they're abusively anti women's rights. They claim to be protecting children yet have no qualms whatever about state-sanctioned, gender-based abuse and personal violence that is forced pregnancy - and no concerns whatever about the right every child has to live beyond his/her teenage years and not be shot in school.
Pro-lifers are hoping the pending SCOTUS decision will favor restricting abortions. If it does, it will impede access to safe abortions, but it won't stop a woman's right to control her reproductive life. One way or another, women will do that - and believing otherwise is fallacious, magical thinking with no basis in reality. With this in mind, the pro-life energy would be better spent stopping gun violence against currently living children, not on further endangering their mother's lives by restricting her reproductive rights.
Thoughts and prayers don't stop bullets and legislation won't stop abortions - and fixing both of these problems is in the hands of the voters.
Paula Dáil
Spring Green, WI