July 21, 2008 Letter to the Editor The Examiner threads@dcexaminer.com Dear Editor: Government should not substitute church doctrine for abortion policy - July 18 Bruce R. Gilson said Mr. Retta (South Dakota law just tells women the biological facts," letters, July 15) "states the personhood of a fetus in a womb as a 'fact'". Mr. Gilson may need a remedial reading course. Retta said nothing about personhood, he only quoted the South Dakota law which requires an abortionist to tell women an abortion will "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being". I wish I had been told that and not deceived. For proof the SD law is accurate visit www.yourdevelopingbaby.com/sampleChapters/7.htm for sonograms including a dancing fetus. Mr. Gilson continues his errors claiming Retta's agreement with the SD law is driven by the Catholic Church. God gave Moses the Commandments for the Jewish people. "Thou shalt not kill" is what the Catholic Church remains faithful to with its proscription on killing the preborn.. Missy Smith Silent No More Awareness Campaign 4000 Cathedral Ave. N.W. Washington, DC 20016 202 337-1966 _________________________________________________________________________ Government should not substitute church doctrine for abortion policy - July 18 Re: " Dakota law just tells women the biological facts," letters, July 15 Richard Retta’ letter states the personhood of a fetus in a womb as a " fact," using the independent genome argument. But this reasoning, taken to its obvious conclusion, would deny the independent personhood of an identical twin. The only fair criterion as to when an independent person begins to exist is when it becomes viable without a parasitic dependence upon another living organism. To those who consider a fetus a separate person, if you can deliver it and keep it alive, then you can tell me it’ an independent human life. Until then, no. Retta echoes the definitions of the Catholic Church and some (not all) Protestant denominations. But government is not supposed to make one religion the arbiter of matters that fall under its laws. The government cannot prevent Catholic doctors from refusing to perform abortions, but when the people involved do not belong to religions that have such concepts, it is an equal violation of the First Amendment to impose Catholic doctrine on them. Bruce R. Gilson Rockville ______________________________________________________________________ South Dakota law just tells women biological facts - Printed July 15 Re: " Dakota law limits women’ freedom," July 8, & "deserve to hear the truth about abortion," From Readers, July 10 The being growing in a woman’ womb with 46 chromosomes — 23 from each parent — is a whole human being, not a partial or incomplete one, despite Mr. Doerr’ fuming against the South Dakota law that requires abortionists to tell women an abortion will " terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." The South Dakota law states the biological facts of reproduction, which pro-abortionists have always denied, telling women their babies are just a clump of cells. Richard A. Retta Rockville