Proposed Ohio law would criminalize all abortions

Proposed Ohio law would criminalize all abortions
EDITOR:
Citizens of Ohio, wake up -- we are not crying "wolf." If the extremists in our legislature have their way, safe, legal abortion in Ohio will become a thing of the past.
By the time you read this letter, House Bill 228 will have been heard in the Ohio House. What is HB 228? It is a bill that criminalizes all abortion, and contains no provision to save the life of the woman or to end a pregnancy caused by rape or incest. Furthermore, it makes it a felony for anyone to take a woman across a state line to have an abortion elsewhere. And that doesn't mean taking a minor over the state line, it means anyone. So if you take your 35-year-old best friend to Pennsylvania for an abortion, you're a felon. If your mom or your sister goes with you to New York because your birth control fails, same thing.
If our elected officials really cared about reducing the need for abortion, they would work to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place and make sure birth control, emergency contraception and sex ed are available and affordable to all. (Remember, this is the state that eliminated family planning funding three years ago.) Instead, they cave into the right-wing extremists -- who are in the minority, by the way. The majority of Ohioans oppose an outright abortion ban, yet these legislators introduce the most restrictive legislation in the country.
It's time we send a message to politicians who insist that they know what's best for the rest of us, and let them know that we're watching their every move. We will pay attention, we will write and call, we will mobilize. And we will remember.
LINDA KOSTA
Struthers
The writer is vice president of development and community services for Planned Parenthood of Mahoning Valley, Inc.
People help make Liberty a better place in which to live
EDITOR:
I want to thank the Liberty community for putting their time and effort into making Liberty a better township. It is nice to drive down Belmont Avenue and see flowers planted by the highway and also new benches at the bus stops. It's nice to live in a well kept community and have local stores to go to without driving very far.
I'm pleased with our school. We have wonderful teachers who go the extra distance to help the students improve their grades and anything they can do to help us out. I think the public sometimes focuses on the bad things in our community and forgets to look at all the positive things.
I just want to say thanks to everyone who has put an effort into making Liberty a better place to live.
JAMIE CARNAHAN
Liberty
There are honest people
EDITOR:
I would like to make a positive note to counter all the dishonesty that I read and hear about.
My husband lost his wallet at Schwebel's Thrift Store on Midlothian. Before he missed it, we got a call telling us it was there. It was all intact and they would take no reward.
I have had a lot of things like this happen in my lifetime, so I just thought I'd assure people that there are a lot of honest hard-working people out there, even if you mostly hear about the other kind.
BETTY FORD
Youngstown