At 04:42 PM 8/5/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Sunny:
>If you will refrain from answering me with sound bites and sematics, I will
>do the same for you.

I wasn't aware that I had been answering you with sound bites and sematics. Since you have failed to point out which part of my e-mail message contains sound bites and sematics, I will have to take a guess and address the points I see fit to address.

I assume you are refering to my opinion that the concept of life beginning at conception is a debatable issue. Well, I suppose that, strictly speaking, life does begin at conception, well, even that isn't strictly true, since both the sperm and the egg are alive before the egg accepts the sperm. Be that is it may, there remains a profound difference among a fertilized egg, an embyro, a fetus, and an already been born human being. For the sake of argument, if you went to a restaurant and ordered fried chicken and the waitress brought a Sunny-side up egg, would you think the order had been properly filled? I wouldn't for I recognize a profound difference between eggs and chickens. In a like manner, I recognize a profound difference between an egg and a human being. Where is there any sound bites and sematics in that reasoning? There isn't any. So you loose that round.

>Lets be honest, the right to control one's reproductive freedom is
>double-speak for the right to kill a human being.

Nonsense. The right to control one's reproductive processes is one of the most basic rights which every human being should be accorded. After all, a government which has the power to demand that a woman bear children by outlawing contraception and abortion also has the right to forbid a woman from reproducing. And I really don't think that the government has the right to say, for the sake of argument, forbid fundamentalist Christians from reproducing because they are obviously of such limited intelligence.

>Medical evidence shows us that life begins at conception

The egg and the sperm are both alive when the egg accepts the sperm.

> ( when the sperm and egg meet, a new and distinctly different human life begins)

Yes, that is true. Do you mean to imply that because the genetic material is arranged in a unique fashion when the egg accepts the sperm that the fertilized egg should be accorded the same rights as an already been born person? If so, does it mean that it is ok to abort one of two identical twins since the uniquely fashioned genetic material will survive in the form of the surviving twin?

> This is in any
>freshman biology textbook, it is an fact. Killing is what we do when we end
>a life. You step on an ant and kill it.
>If you wish to use barrier methods of birth control, you are not killing a
>new life. The pill works in two ways, by preventing ovulation, which is
>fine. But, sometimes you have breakthrough ovulation. The pill also works
>by making the lining of the womb hostile, so the fertilized egg can't
>implant. This part of the pill kills a new life.

Oh, so you want to outlaw most forms of contraception. Thank you. You made my point. Only about 3% of the people in this country support your position. You are an extremist.

> If you wish to control
>reproduction, the best method is to not have sex.

I really don't see sex going out of style any time soon. However, if you and your husband choose to remain celibate or to use condoms except when you want to procreate, that is find with me. Just don't force other people into unwanted celibacy or restrict their contraceptive choices.

>The reasons I took issue with you, was the flip attitude your web page
>presents.

You mean my attitude where I note that the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion. Or was it my attitude that the Catholic church has waffled on the issue over the centuries. Or perhaps it was my attitude that abortion can be a very moral choice for a woman.

> Women who have abortions do not have them lightly and they suffer
>when making this decision and afterwards.

Every woman I know who has had an abortion felt mostly relief that they were "unpregnant." I don't know where you get your information from, but maybe if you got out into the world and listened to the 97% of Americans who do not support your position, you would come to understand why so many women support their right to abortion and contraception.

> It is not something anyone looks
>forward to, as in "someday I will grow-up and have and abortion, oh boy!'

You are right. We do not support women running out and getting knocked up just so they can have an abortion.

>your page title shows the fact that you are indifferent to the pain
>experienced by women.

I know of a few women who have suffered from terminating a much wanted pregnancy because something went wrong with the baby-to-be or the mother-to-be. For most of the rest, they don't feel remorse or guilt until people like you harp at them. Perhap if you and people like you would stop harping at them, they wouldn't feel bad.

> Every women who has been in a hard situtation and
>chosen the easy way out (abortion) has suffered for that decision.

Where ever did you find that piece of misinformation? Like I said earlier, why don't you start *listening* (I said listening, not talking to) women who disagree with you. You might learn something. If your side wants any credibility, you are going to have to at least get your facts straight.

> Countless
>women will tell you that they wish they had never had the abortion and regret
>it even 30 years after the fact. The truth is most women don't take the
>killing of a child lightly.

Well, if I seriously believed that "children were being killed" at abortion clinics, I would do much more than write e-mail messages to my opponents. What have you done for the woman's movement except whine about abortion? What have you done except utilize the gains we nasty feminists have made for all women, including women like you whom we strongly oppose? If you like having access to a quality education, a credit card, the right to sign a contract in your own name, the right to own property, the right to have a career, then you owe a huge debt of gratitude to the feminists who came before you.

Sunny

>Carole LaFreniere

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