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July 29, 2024
Editor, The News-Gazette: In his July 24 News-Gazette opinion, Mike Lowry alleges that Kamala Harris has advocated an extreme position on abortion, but he provides no references or proof. This is a disservice to News-Gazette readers and a misrepresentation of Ms. Harris.
During my 31 years as an obstetrician/gynecologist (1985 to 2016) the abortion landscape shifted some, and remarkable advances in neonatal care lowered the age of “viability.” But some things remained constant. Nobody in the profession ever advocated for abortion “for any reason into the third trimester right up to the moment of birth.”
Abortion is a complicated issue. Ideally no woman would get pregnant unless she wanted to, contraception would be perfectly effective, pregnancies would be perfect and abortion would never be needed. Most Americans, though, appreciate the complexity of this issue and think that early abortion is tolerable and infanticide is not. https:// www.pewresearch.org/religion/ fact-sheet/public-opinion-onabortion/.
I am no authority on all the opinions of all the politicians out there, so I attempted to find any record of Harris having supported abortion “for any reason into the third trimester right up to the moment of birth,” as Mr. Lowry alleges. I can’t find it. I do find the text of legislation she has co-sponsored that would have prevented states from imposing abortion restrictions in certain circumstances (https://www.congress. gov/bill/115th-congress/ senate-bill/510). But it only addresses abortion beyond fetal viability in circumstances where the woman’s life or health is in danger (not “for any reason”). In fact, when a maternal medical issue requires termination of a pregnancy after fetal viability is reached, that pregnancy is ended through labor and delivery, not abortion.
If Mr. Lowry has any evidence that Ms. Harris espouses a more extremist view, he should present that evidence to us. ELLEN BROCK Rockbridge County
