FROM: Terry Lynch@aol.com; POB 241035; Montgomery, AL 36124-1035 Phone: (334) 272-4217 voice (334) 277-3582 fax via arrangement DATE: July 18, 1998 TO: Letter to the Editor SUBJECT: Abortion Issue Is Playing God How does it feel to play God? No issue asks that question more strongly than the abortion issue. Of course if we lived in a perfect world there would be no abortions. All pregnancies would go to term, all fetuses would grow into normal, healthy babies, every infant would be born to a mother and father who were deeply in love and wanted the baby, and not a single child of God would be born with birth defects, deformities or other mental or physical illness. But we do not live in a perfect world. Kids often have kids before they hardly know what they are doing, much less how to properly use a condom. Sometimes these children have been raped or sexually abused by parents or family members. Teenage girls often find themselves pregnant uncertain who the father is. Others find themselves having babies and dumping them in dumpsters. No, we do not live in a perfect world. In the unperfect world in which we live people sometimes think they are in love only to find a baby coming and love long gone. Sometimes couples want a child and discover the fetus growing inside their womb is terribly deformed or at high risk of not being born healthy or normal. In extreme cases a baby may be born with serious mental and/or physical defect for which there is no cure. No, we certainly do not live in a perfect world. In a perfect world every man and woman would fall in love and marry and live happily ever after. Their lives would be blessed by God and never be beset by tragedy. Yet too often lovers marry, have children and divorce after only a few years. Sometimes this cycle repeats itself. Quite often women end up unmarried, abandoned by their husbands, with children they must support alone. No, it certainly is not a perfect world. In a perfect world men and women would have equal power. Our legislatures would not be controlled by men, nor would our churches be dominated by men. Equality of the sexes would exist in a perfect world and the image of God in people's minds would not be male, but without gender. Laws would not be written and pasted primarily by men but would be the result of equal male- female representation in our legislatures. No, we certainly do not live in a perfect world. With men making all the laws and most the money, why then do so many people oppose the right for women to control their own bodies and their own destinies? Why are men the only ones allowed to play God? When there are not enough well paying jobs, not enough food and not enough love to satisfy everyone, why do so many people think they are the only ones who can play God by telling women who want an abortion that they have made the wrong choice? Why can't everyone play God? Wouldn't that make it a more perfect world? Why do some people play God by marching and protesting outside abortion clinics, while others play God by intimidating pregnant women who want abortions? Why still do others play God by attacking the nurses and doctors who provide abortions, using bullets, bombs and even acid as a weapon to maim and murder? Could it be this is just further proof we certainly live in anything but a perfect world? Yet each of us were born into this world and may play a role in making it a more perfect world. Aborted fetuses and unborn babies don't have that chance. If they did would we live in a more or less perfect world? Each of us must decide and in so doing come to know how it feels to play God. But should we any be doing that? Maybe that's why it's not so perfect a world after all...too many people playing God! Sincerely, Terry Lynch Montgomery, AL