Six-hundred-and-fifty American women die each year from pregnancy, many leaving behind motherless children. Thousands more survive and thrive only because of “yucky” medical procedures, such as cesarean sections, hysterectomies, blood transfusions and abortions. Given the latest smear campaign against Planned Parenthood, it appears that religious conservatives who fail to appreciate the difference between a baby and a fetus, or between morality and disgust, would rather that some of those women died [“Planned Parenthood official says no profit from fetal organs,” Nation & World, July 26].
Most of us have little stomach for medical procedures that involve cutting people open, removing body parts or dealing with squishy tissue and bodily fluids.