ARTFUL BAIT Patrick J. Ryan’s summary of the New York Public Library’s current exhibit (“Illuminating Manuscripts,” January 14) shines as a small nugget of enjoyable information and also as a great piece of bait to whet one’s appetite for the larger exhibit. I especially liked it when Ryan described the sacred Jewish, Christian, and Islamic texts on display at the lib (...)
Letters
Fasting, abortion, Pius XII
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Re "Whose Straw Men?" by Dennis O'Brien: I have long thought about the rhetoric of abortion, the labeling of it as murder or even genocide. It is neither. It is unique. It is one woman at a time making a decision in a particular situation.
And according to Michael Reagan (son of Ronald, talk radio host and speaker in many Christian churches), 69% of teens who have abortions are Christian. Of those he has talked with (mainly from upscale conservative Protestant churches) most were in effect more afraid of their parents response and opinion than of having an abortion. I'm sure his words would also be true of Catholic churches. All the focus on legal measures, with sometimes angry protests, isn't lost on teens. They observe their parents. Some wouldn't dare disgrace their parents or risk upsetting them or face their wrath. So they never mention their pregnancy. They feel unwelcome pregnant. They feel that their parents' and the congregations' love is conditional.