After almost 50 years as a nurse, I’ve seen why access to abortion is crucial

Abortion

Unfortunately, there are times when the woman cannot control the circumstances. Rape and incest occur. What about women who are drugged?

In almost 50 years as a nurse I’ve worked with patients in too many of these heart-breaking situations. Our culture does not want to recognize this. It’s too abhorrent to acknowledge but we all know it occurs.

How dare our government—be it Congress, the courts, or the president—presume to control what a woman does once a pregnancy occurs. If you think abortion is wrong, then don’t have one! It’s very simple.

Susan Cohen, Durham

Post-Roe America

Twenty-six states are ready to ban or significantly impede access to abortion when — not if — the Supreme Court overturns Roe. We can’t let North Carolina become one of them.

The N.C. General Assembly will be the last line of defense. Early voting is underway. We should all realize by now that every election has consequences, whether it is a primary, general, or midterm election.

The 2016 election resulted in the makeup of the current Court, which is about to overturn 50 years of precedent. Pro-choice North Carolinians have an opportunity. The current anti-choice majority in the legislature must be voted out and replaced with people who understand that abortion is health care, reproductive freedom is fundamental and women should have a seat at the table.

Let’s fully support the many progressive women on the ballot now and again in November.

Sarah Preston

Executive Director, Lillian’s List

Contraception

If legislators and others really cared about reducing abortion, they would work hard to make contraception affordable and widely available and expand access to health care and affordable child care. Then, women and their partners would have the ability to make sound choices about when to welcome children into their family.

Restricting access to safe, legal abortion won’t reduce abortions. It just means many women will suffer and some will die needlessly.

Mary Mountcastle, Durham

4th District

The N&O’s endorsement of Nida Allam in the 4th Congressional District is pure “identity politics.” You dismiss Sen. Valerie Foushee’s greater experience in favor of Allam’s “qualifications” of age (“young”), religion, and being a “daughter of immigrants.” Our democracy should not be run by folks selected to govern by what “teams” they represent rather than their ability and experience.

Lester Levine, Chapel Hill

Commission pay

It certainly smacks of self-dealing for Wake County commissioners to give themselves a 132% raise. (April 29) Commissioners should not individually, nor as a group, directly benefit from a vote to raise compensation for their office. To do so constitutes a clear conflict of interest. And when it is 132%, it leans toward corruption of office. If it is ever determined that an increase is in the public interest, it should apply only to successors in office, never to those who voted for it in the first place.

Ernest Fullwood, Durham

PNC Arena

Regarding “Hurricanes, NHL to push for arena upgrades,” (May 5):

If $400 million in tax money is going to subsidize a private, for-profit operation—a highly questionable premise—there should be transit options. At the very least shuttle buses from and to free parking at the fairgrounds and/or nearby park-and-ride facilities.

Every time my family and I have gone to an event at the arena the workers in the orange vests are only too eager to demand the parking fee, but then disappear after the game and abandon drivers to gridlock.

Gregory Morris, Chapel Hill

A visitor’s view

I am a concerned citizen new to Durham, a visiting professor at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. I came from Maine where sustainability has taken on greater meaning in recent years.

When joining students on excursions in Durham, I have been disappointed to see trash, particularly plastic bag and bottle waste, strewn on the ground in many places.

We talk much at the Nicholas School about economic efforts to reduce waste and keep it out of the environment. But policy needs to play a part in stimulating sustainability in Durham.

Maine recently passed a plastic bag ban that reduced the presence of bags in the environment. Businesses also saw reduced costs, as the bags were expensive. Durham can see such bottom-line benefits if the city acts to ban plastic bags as part of a sustainable long-term strategy.

Jeremy Pare, Durham

Corporate owners

Regarding the articles on corporate-owned rental homes in North Carolina (May 1-4), I see similarities with what has happened in other industries. Companies become targets of hedge funds and other financial institutions that are investing (or is it speculating?) in these industries. Their impact is not always benign. Perhaps we should insist that elected officials, at all levels, investigate aspects of our tax system that encourage this kind of profit making. Changes may be warranted.

Randolph Rodgers, Raleigh

This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 12:16 PM with the headline "After almost 50 years as a nurse, I’ve seen why access to abortion is crucial."