Singling out is unjust, immoral
Rep. David Eastman's claim that Alaska's state funding for abortion incentivizes women to get pregnant and seek abortion services is offensive, stigmatizing and ignorant of the injustice that low-income women experience. A woman facing financial hardship deserves the same respect for decisions about her pregnancy as a woman with means. Existing barriers to abortion care access force many women to travel out of state. For those women, compounded medical and travel costs should not be prohibitive so as to interfere with her decision and the care that she needs. More importantly, she certainly should not be judged for seeking that care.
As Catholics, we are called to follow our conscience and serve those with the least in our communities. A majority of Catholic voters believe that insurance should cover abortion care when a woman decides it is the best decision for her. Singling out poor women who are unable to afford this financial burden on their own is unjust, immoral and antithetical to our Catholic traditions. State funding for abortion care is social justice and makes it accessible to all women, no matter their income or zip code.
— Jon O'Brien,
president, Catholics for Choice
Washington, D.C.
OK if it furthers your views?
In my May 5 letter to the editor, I pointed out how the polarization in this country is being encouraged by such actions as The New York Times misrepresenting the photo of Kid Rock, Sara Palin and Ted Nugent at the White House. Keith Muschinske, May 8, responded saying that it is my letter that enhances political division. Hmmm … so I should not have pointed out the media's dishonesty? One can only conclude that he feels that it's perfectly OK for the media to misrepresent the facts as long as such behavior supports and furthers Muschinske's political views and those with similar views.
Muschinske then goes on to indicate what he's even more concerned about is that these three celebrities were invited to the White House at all, because these three have radically different views than he has. So,Trump inviting people who helped with his presidential campaign to the White House is somehow different from Obama inviting to the White House people who helped Obama's campaign — people disliked by Obama's opposition. Sounds like a double standard to me.
— Jim Lieb
Palmer
Optometrists aren't doctors
I am writing to publicly castigate the Alaska House of Representatives and state Sen. Cathy Giessel in particular for promoting a law that would allow nondoctors to operate — yes, operate — on our eyes. How could that even happen? Well, apparently the only reason is that optometrists have simply decided that's what they would like to do and Cathy Giessel wrote a bill for them. Maybe I missed something but I am not aware of anyone clamoring to have untrained, nondoctors doing laser surgery, sticking needles in people's eyes, prescribing narcotics, and basically doing whatever they want. It is unfortunate for Alaskans, that Giessel, her optometry friends and an excessive number of legislators somehow overlooked the fact that optometrists are not actual doctors, have no surgical training and the fact that most of us feel our eyes are fairly important to us.
If you agree with me that these two bills (Senate Bill 36 and House Bill 103) are utterly stupid, I suggest you let your governor, senators and representatives know that they work for you and not for a special interest group trying to advance their personal agenda. I also suggest that in the future you vote for people who show a bit of common sense when a question arises about who gets to wield the scalpel.
— David Swanson, MD
Anchorage
The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.