To the editor:
In 1965 the U.S. Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut ruled that “a married couple has a right of privacy that cannot be infringed upon by a state law making it a crime to use contraceptives.”
The 1972 Eisenstadt v. Baird ruling extended the privacy protection around contraception to unmarried people.
These rulings were based on the Fifth Amendment, which resulted in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
If the 2024 intentions of the Republican Party are to ban abortions nationwide, what is to stop them from also banning contraceptives?
Women will be forced by the state to have annual pregnancies if this occurs. It could happen that many married women will refuse to have intercourse because they do not want to be pregnant annually until they reach menopause.
Do we want to go back to the 1800s, when women were only for child bearing or prostitution?
Vote for a Democratic Party candidate who will vote to protect women’s health and welfare.
Julie Stewart
Waukee
Great letter, Julie. Thank you.
The Supreme court is not banning abortions. They are turning it back to the states, where it belongs. If you want an abortion, buy a bus ticket, and go to a blue state!
Says a man who would never have to take that ride. And the dog whistle, “buy a bus ticket,” is telling.
Dan Stout-I worry about my three adolescent granddaughters, who may have a miscarriage and then are prosecuted for murder. My mother, mother-in-law, sister, grandmother, grandmother-in-law, sister-in-law — all had miscarriages that they were devastated in losing. My grandmother lost her life after the miscarriage. I worry about an ectopic pregnancy that will be considered an abortion if she has medical treatment. I worry about a fetus that is missing vital organs, such as a brain, and the mother who will not be relieved of the burden of a dead fetus. (My friend’s daughter lost three fetuses with this genetic disorder before she had two healthy daughters. It cannot be detected until after the fifth month of pregnancy.) I worry that the Republicans will make a ban nationwide in 2025 so that medical treatment will have to be made outside of the U.S.