Roe decision brings out emotions

My heart is sick over the callousness of conservative justices who would force a 13-year-old girl impregnated by rape to carry that baby full-term [“Supreme Court overturns Roe; abortion bans allowed,” News, June 25].

What about a pregnant woman whose life is at risk while carrying a baby? And what about a fetus that dies and that woman is denied an abortion? Republicans are willing to force women to carry unwanted babies but are unwilling to provide counseling or other support for these mothers and their unwanted babies after they are born.

A baby born into an unloving environment faces a difficult life. How sad. How infuriating that Republicans want less government in general but more government when it comes to controlling women’s bodies. This is a tragedy in the making.

 — Rhonda Weintraub, Kings Park

To think my fellow Americans feel it is right to push their religious beliefs on the rest of us is heartbreaking. And a life sentence to millions of women who, for whatever reason, seek to end a pregnancy. Now, are the Republicans going to increase services for these women and children (who are being forced to be born) to keep them above poverty level? We all know the answer is a loud “No!”

I am too old for overturning Roe v. Wade to affect me personally. But I will always fight for my daughters’ and granddaughters’ right to choose.

 — Michelle Urso, West Babylon

Finally, “liberty and justice for all” — born and unborn. Now, it’s up to the states and voters to get it on the ballots in November and let democracy do its job. Isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be? The federal government never should have been involved. The Constitution is not about taking lives away by choice.

 — Bernie McGrath, Holbrook  

Now that the Supreme Court has abridged the federal right to privacy, it says it is time to return the issue of abortion “to the people and their elected representatives,” i.e., the states.

The opinion, addressing past state laws outlawing abortion, says these laws were “spurred by a sincere belief that abortion kills a human being.” The opinion then allowed, “One may disagree with this belief.” This “belief” is nothing other than a religious judgment, in many cases embodied in a given religion’s sacred texts.

The court has given the states free reign to impose religious beliefs of some Americans (according to all polls, a minority) upon all the people who happen to live in a given state. Imposing the religious “beliefs” of some on all is in direct violation of the First Amendment.

 — Carl Grasso, Huntington

Shame on the Supreme Court justices! Our entire country has never been more divided in my 71 years, yet these justices have overturned a most controversial precedent. This highest court in our government is supposed to be comprised of apolitical judges whose only agenda is to determine the constitutionality of federal laws.

Instead, many of them are choosing to support conservative platforms and, more blatantly, they have chosen to do this before midterm elections.

In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protects a woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion, and the court reaffirmed this in 1992. Has the wording of the 14th Amendment, giving the fundamental right to privacy protecting the choices a woman makes, been changed? No.

 — JoAnn Saladino, Amityville

I was pleased with the ruling. It wasn’t banned throughout the country but was left up to the states to decide. I don’t know why President Joe Biden says this is overturning Constitutional rights since there is nothing in the Constitution that guarantees abortion.

There are many ways to prevent getting pregnant, and women who don’t want to be pregnant should use these preventive measures.  

— Wayne Mortak, West Babylon

Now, the hypocrisy of the Republican Party is fully on display. You can apply for a gun permit for no reason at all, and you no longer have the right to choose the kind of health care you receive.

You will be able to carry a concealed weapon on a crowded Long Island street, and you might just use it to kill someone. That seems fine with the conservative majority on the Supreme Court. But if you’re a woman and you’re raped, you will not have the right to abort a possible pregnancy.

Murder is both a moral and legal issue, but to make it easier to carry out is a travesty in and of itself. Abortion is strictly a moral issue that should never have legal connotation assigned to it.

How long before contraception or family planning is criminalized while “he insulted me, so I shot him” becomes justifiable homicide? Hypocrisy!

—  Michael Zisner, Bethpage

One thing that seems left out of the discussion is what goes on before you become pregnant. How about self-control or birth control? Sixteen-year-old girls who are protesting in front of the Supreme Court justices’ homes should focus on not getting pregnant.

You can take control of your body and not get pregnant. “My body” is heard over and over. It is women’s responsibility not to get pregnant. You have the keys to the kingdom. Once you have sex, you should start the clock to address how you will deal with the issue if you become pregnant, and not wait. Maybe take a pregnancy test before your next menstrual period, and not wait until a heartbeat is present. And a baby could always be given up for adoption.

Protesters younger than 50 should remember that their parents chose not to abort them.

— Kevin McGrath, Northport

What will be next up on the table, repealing a woman’s right to vote? Sadly and truly, this is all the fault of former President Donald Trump. America is now the disgrace of the world.

— Michael Lefkowitz,  East Meadow

If Justice Clarence Thomas’ interpretation of the Constitution is based on original intent, how do he and other justices of the Supreme Court reconcile their gun rulings with the fact that, when our Constitution was written, there only existed single-shot pistols and single-shot rifles that were loaded, quite slowly, with a ball, wad and gunpowder? Assault rifles and even today’s pistols could not have been envisioned.
 — Ralph Kreitzman, Great Neck

Such a sad time for our country — treating women like second-class citizens.

Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion, wrote about outlawing contraception and same-sex marriage. He should be reminded that interracial marriage has only been legal since 1967. Is he considering making that illegal, too?

— Barbara Meyer, Melville

I saw Paul McCartney in concert this month. When he sang, “When all the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer,” it resonated with me more than it had the past 50 years.

I started thinking of the increasing number of broken-hearted Americans worried about the frequency of mass murders with little gun control, open-carry gun laws, the imminent threat of global warming and, now, the loss of the right for women to control their bodies. And the sad acknowledgment that these are just some of the issues that have been made worse by the Republican Party.

— Ray Boivie, Kings Park