Decide in your own conscience

Dear Editor,

Clare Boothe Luce (1910 - 1987) was a writer, author, two-term Congresswoman for the 4th Congressional District of Connecticut (1942 + 1944), Ambassador to Italy (1953 - 1956), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.  She was the first female member of the House of Representatives to receive this honor.

 Mrs. Luce was a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and according to Wikipedia she "bequeathed a large sum of money to an academic program, the Clare Boothe Luce Program, designed to encourage the entry of women into technological fields traditionally dominated by men."

She had strong words for those feminists who supported abortion rights.  In "A Letter to the Women's Lobby" that was published by the journal, "The Human Life Review" in 1978 and published again in the Spring 2024 issue, she explains her reasons for her opposition.

"First, I do not care to be identified with a campaign that has already done so much to jeopardize the passage of [the Equal Rights Amendment]. If ERA fails to pass, as I now fear it will, a large part of the blame must fall on those misguided feminists who have tried to make the extraneous issue of unrestricted and federally-funded abortion the centerpiece of the Equal Rights struggle."

Clare further writes, "Secondly, I do not accept the extraordinary proposition that women cannot achieve equal rights before the law until all women are given the legal right to empty their wombs at will--and at the expense of the taxpayer. There is no logical process of thought by which the unnatural act of induced abortion and the destruction of the unborn child in the womb can be deemed to be a natural right of all women.  But of all the human acts that 'go against nature', the killing of a child by its own mother has---throughout human history--been viewed with the most revulsion."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 - 1902) was a pioneer in the women's right's movement.  In a personal letter sent on October 16, 1873, she writes, "when we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."

 Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 - 1910), an Anglo-Saxon, and the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States (1849 - top of her class) wrote "The gross perversion and destruction of motherhood by the abortionist filled me with indignation, and active antagonism."

The late St. Mother Teresa stated in 1994 when addressing an audience that included President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, along with their wives Hillary and Tipper, at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C.  "And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

We have enough violence in the world with the ever-widening "conflict" in the Middle East and the continuing war in Ukraine, mass shootings in our homes, schools, churches, businesses, and our streets, that we don't need more lives lost.

Pope Francis was very critical of both major party nominees for President for their "antilife and migration policies" and his suggestion to Catholic voters was to cast a vote "for the lesser evil".  "Each person must think and decide in his or her own conscience."

Jesus in addressing false prophets, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves." (Matthew 7, 15) My conscience informs me that we have two wolves, one is pretty obvious, the other fits Jesus's warning, so on November 5, I shall NOT cast a ballot for either candidate.  Whatever happens on November 5, Jesus is Lord, not any of our modern-day Caesars.

Patrick Hardyman

Blanchardville, WI