The Editor, Sir:

Professor Carolyn Cooper has made several interesting remarks in her recent article 'Aborting women's rights'.

She suggests that the current restrictive laws are the result of male domination, and thus they should be repealed to grant women true freedom and equality.

What could be the source of the idea that the "final solution" for a woman's liberation should be found in the "right" to deliberately kill her own offspring?

In India, women are undervalued and some in turn undervalue their unborn daughters (sorry, fetuses) by doing ultrasounds to determine gender, then promptly aborting the females.

Our Chinese sisters can legally reproduce only once, or face serious sanctions. They often are taken by force to have abortions performed against their will, or 'choose' to abort females because of the higher social value of a male heir.

Both India and China are now reaping the social consequences of these practices.

It is arguable that the situation of Indian women and the pro-choice feminist commitment to unrestricted abortion are both examples of the abuse of power in the context of majority-minority group relations.

She may be interested to learn that many women are coerced to have abortions. This often serves the purposes of abusive, irresponsible and predatory males, or suppresses evidence of felonious sexual activity.

New era

One of our local abortionists who boasted in public of having done "thousands" of these procedures proudly asserted that if his own daughter had a mistimed pregnancy but refused to submit to abortion, he would "tie her down himself" and do the needful. Why was this statement unchallenged by our local feminists?

Would it not be better if we all worked for a new era in which women are loved, respected and valued as equals, without the fetus being viewed as a disposable commodity or a burdensome irritant?

I am, etc.,

Doreen West

drbradywest@hotmail.com

Kingston