To the Editor:

As a regular columnist, I seldom address responses to my columns since the free flow of opinions is a hallmark of our great democracy. However, comments and mischaracterizations by Jeanette Dantice in her recent letter necessitate a response.
As a proud liberal Democrat, I am pro-choice, not pro-abortion. I believe, as do many in my party, that abortion should be legal, safe, and, above all, rare. Abortion should never be used as birth control, but should be available in the event that a woman, in consultation with her doctor and her God, determines it to the right decision for her.
The far right’s concern for children appears to end at the birth canal. A simple look at the draconian cuts proposed in Republican budgets to programs that directly benefit children bears testament to this fact – cuts in food stamps, children’s health insurance programs, head start, education and on and on.
While I do not know Ms. Dantice’s personal story, I hope that people who feel as she does have and will open their homes and hearts to children other than their own. I have, taking into my home at different times a teenage girl and a young boy, providing for their physical needs and, to the best of my ability, their emotional and educational needs as well.
The foster care system is filled with needy children. I can only hope that some of Ms. Dantice’s anguished concern for unborn embryos extends to these thousands of children.

Celia L. Murray
Madison
Via e-mail

Printed in the September 6. 2012 edition.