Abortion Rights

by Edd Doerr

This letter was published in the (conservative) Washington Examiner on 11/8/12 ----

""Abortion decision based on separation of church, state"

Dino Drudi's defense of reproductive choice and Roe v Wade ("Abortion ruling based on Jeffersonian autonomy," 11/6) was right on target. We might add that the 1973 ruling was based on the Supreme Court's 1972 ruling in Baird v Eisenstadt, written by devout Catholic Jusrtice William Brennan, who was also one of the architects of Roe.

Abortion was legal and not uncommon during the lifetimes of the country's Founding Fathers. Opposition to reproductive choice is based on disdain for women's health and rights of conscience, and is backed by neither the Judeo-Christian scriptures nor modern science.

Our American heritage of religious freedom and separation of church and state demands that all levels of government respect the rights of conscience of all women.

Edd Doerr
President
Americans for Religious Liberty
Silver Spring, Md