To the editor:

I understand that abortion is an emotionally charged issue for those on each side. For a short period, please suspend your emotions and allow logic and reason to reign.

Does a person’s body belong to anyone else except to that person?

My body is my property.

Women are being told that their bodies are not solely their property. They are to forfeit, forcibly by the government, their rights to themselves because any other life can take root there. That other life is to take precedence because it is an innocent life. The government can order what course a woman’s life will take due to a woman’s physical characteristics.

Women are half the population. Men are the other half. Men are not being assigned a primary job for the entirety of their lives based on their physical characteristics. This would be unacceptable to the entire population.

Regarding forfeiting property rights to one’s own body to protect innocent life, under what other circumstances is this enforced by the government based on religious beliefs?

Men are not forfeiting any property rights to their guns to prevent the slaughter of innocent school children.

Homeowners are not being told to forfeit property rights to their homes to any homeless people finding themselves in this situation due to circumstances beyond their control, with eviction only possible when the former homeowner can show an immediate threat to their own lives.

But you may say, this isn’t about women or men. It is about babies. We must save the babies. But at what cost? If you truly care about the babies, ask yourself, what type of life will a baby born to a woman anticipating and embracing motherhood lead versus a baby born to a woman being enslaved by motherhood?

Stripping women of their rights to their bodies is a step towards giving their body property rights away to others to claim. This does not save babies. This endangers babies and women.

Carolyn (Muehlenbeck) Sumariwalla
Oakville