Abortion not an argument men should be involved in

Editor,

I am getting tired of reading all of these letters, mostly written by males, condemning the legalization of abortion. The thing is, even if abortion became illegal, it would not stop. It would merely take us back to the bad old days when you had to resort to a back-alley butcher to rid yourself of an unwanted pregnancy.

In a documentary film, "Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater," Joanne Goldwater, the granddaughter of Sen. Barry Goldwater, said the following about the time her conservative grandfather helped her to obtain an abortion: "I was getting engaged.. It was actually the Christmas of 1955. And in January, I found out that I was pregnant. And I had planned, I had planned this engagement party and a wedding. And, we had, we had planned to have children. We both were still in school. I was getting my degree. And I, I wasn't ready to have a child. And I got an abortion.. And this was when it was just totally forbidden and very, very dangerous. And young girls were dying by trying it themselves. My father, being conservative, he felt that the government should not decide what women do with their bodies or anything else, you know. The government should stay out of all that. My mother started Planned Parenthood in Arizona in the '30s. And that's why I felt that it was easy to go to them. And they were very, very supportive." More recently, Joanne Goldwater said: "My grandfather was for women's rights. The idea that my body is mine, and what I want to do with it, I will do with it.."

Isn't that intriguing - that there was a time when political conservatives didn't try to butt into other people's private business?

As long as women are the ones risking the morning sickness, the gestational diabetes, the agonies of labor and the possibility of death in childbirth, no man has the right to tell us what we can or cannot do with our bodies. It is a matter of personal agency, personal sovereignty and personal autonomy. Until men can get pregnant, I suggest they concentrate on things that directly concern them like football or erectile dysfunction.

Betty Blackburn

UNM student