Letters to the Editor

Letter: Dunleavy’s court veto is malicious

So the governor has repeated his $334,700 veto against the Alaska Court System for its rulings on elective abortions. He has always been open about his extreme views on safe and legal abortion, but cutting the state’s court system because they enforce the law can only be seen as malicious. Has he added back into the budget the hundreds of thousands of dollars it can cost in health, education and other social services for a fetal-alcohol damaged or drug-damaged baby throughout its life? Or for a child who lives with domestic abuse in a household where that child was not wanted?

What about the mental anguish, depression or other traumas that may be suffered by the parent(s) forced to give birth to a child they cannot afford or for whom they cannot provide a stable home? Will there be an adoptive family and services for a child that may be born with severe disabilities?

No, instead of adding funds to take care of these much, much larger costs, the governor has reaffirmed millions of dollars in cuts to state services, exacerbating the pain of his cut to our judicial system. Can the governor and every man who opposes abortions swear they have never had unprotected sex? Sometimes, even protections fail.

Choosing to have an abortion is surely one of the most difficult, and complex, decisions any woman could face. It is an intensely personal issue. We don’t need a governor asserting himself into our judicial system to take away the freedom and privacy granted by our constitution.

It’s time to recall Dunleavy — now.

— Ann Rappoport

Anchorage

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