Some weeks back, Triplicate readers weighed in on the survey concerning the Supreme Court abortion decision overturning Roe v. Wade . A whopping 70 percent expressed its opposition to the Court’s 6-3 vote to supplant the near half-century-old Constitutionality of Roe. Nationally, the support is 62 percent. I’m part of the minority who support the Court decision on sending the abortion issue back to the states.I don’t delude myself that my words of persuasion will change your mind in support of or opposition to this white-hot issue; nonetheless, I remain more than curious and a bit confused as to how and why supporters of right to choose can defend their position.#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');Here are some data facts provided by the respected Guttmacher Institute: Total legal abortions have increased over the last few years. In 2017, a shade less than 630,000 women legally terminated their pregnancies. These abortions occurred during all three stages of the pregnancy: Fertilized egg or zygote (two to seven weeks), Embryo, (eight to 16 weeks) and Fetus (17 weeks to term). In 2018, the number of legal abortions was slightly more than 619,000. In 2019 and 2020, annual legal abortions spiked to 916,000 and 930,000, respectively. The zenith of legal abortions blossomed in the 80s and 90s, when over a million legal abortions occurred, annually.On average, 56 percent of all legal abortions involve a surgery or a vaginally invasive medical suction device to remove the unborn human being from the woman‘s uterus. In 1989, in the height of the abortion era, there existed 2,908 abortion clinics, hospitals, medical doctors’ offices, and other approved facilities offering legal abortion services. Today, approximately 1,587 abortion providers practice pregnancy termination.85 percent of all women who seek an abortion are unmarried.40 percent of those terminating their pregnancy are first timers. 8 percent have undergone three or more abortions.All the above data are provided by the Institute. It should be duly noted the Guttmacher Institute is a declared partisan in support of a woman’s right to choose and derives some of its funding from Planned Parenthood.My opinion on abortion is resolute. Human life begins at conception. Abortion is morally wrong. Depending on the state in which you live, terminating a pregnancy may now be criminal. It is estimated since Roe has been Law from 1973, 70 million future human beings have been deprived of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. What vexes me is the selfish behavior of some women who choose to terminate those innocent lives for oft-times frivolous reasons such as the pregnancy is inconvenient or unplanned, the gender of the unborn is unacceptable to the parent or the unborn may be susceptible to a medical condition such as Down’s Syndrome. The Triplicate wrote an editorial some weeks back acknowledging many of the frivolous reasons women choose to abort a pregnancy. We all have our stories to share about the abortion question which hits home, up front and very personal. My now deceased mother and father chose to abort my mother’s 1939 pregnancy. In a very different era, my then-unmarried 19 year old mother and 20 year old father aborted her pregnancy. Indeed, my parents married in 1940. In later years, Mom deeply regretted her choice. The illegal abortion left her able to produce three children but the termination left an emotional scar which never healed. She always regretted her decision. As an adult, I asked my Mom why she chose abortion. Her response was stark and blunt: Shame… In pre-WW II America, the guilt associated with having a child born out of wedlock was profound and societally verboten. Indeed, my older sister (deceased), younger brother and me were deprived of an older sibling. Indeed, we all have our experiences.Who speaks for the unborn? The zygote never committed a crime, the embryo never misbehaved to deserve instant vanquishment and all the fetus ever did was occasionally kick the female carrier a bit. Does that kick deserve capital punishment?I draw the nexus between those passionately defending the woman’s right to terminate the life of an unborn infant and to those who have committed heinous and horrific crimes deserving of the death penalty. Scott Peterson sits in the Condemned Unit at San Quentin after being convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Laci and unborn son, Conner, two decades ago. There are those equally passionate in sparing the life of Peterson and hoping a new trial will be granted. Laci and Conner won’t have a say on that one.Of the other 688 death row inmates at San Quentin and Chowchilla, Gov. Gavin Newsom has stayed those executions as long as he’s governor and plans to dismantle both death chambers in an illegal attempt to circumvent state law on execution. The governor and our two local legislators, Assemblymember Jim Wood and State Senator Mike McGuire have quickly carved out legislation for financial aid/funding to bring pregnant women from abortion-banned states, to the Golden State to terminate their pregnancies. These two are building an ignominious legacy of removing unborn children from existence. I particularly find Wood’s participation in this process repulsive as he has authored and his bill signed by Gov. Newsom now becomes law. The law is a massive and costly children’s healthcare reform. Newsom, McGuire, Wood and the majority of our legislators travel great lengths to eliminate innocent human life yet fight to save the lives of the most abominable and vile human beings imaginable. Hypocritical!President Biden has issued an executive order protecting a woman’s right to cross state lines and have her abortion.California will soon become a safehouse for mothers hoping to dispose of their human, uteran baggage. The Triplicate’s community standard of good taste prevents me from displaying the horrific graphic showing the results of a fetus being sucked out of the mother’s womb by a medical vacuum cleaner, ripping limbs from the unborn torso and obliterating the tiny skull and brain from the spinal cord. Picture that graphic in your mind.To those who spew out a woman’s right to eliminate human life…yet will fight to keep 12-year-old Polly Klass’ and 5-year-old Samantha Runnion’s rapist-murderers alive and breathing, I have a single question for you considering abortion:Other than your own, is human life sacred? Roger Gitlin is a retired District 1 Del Norte County Supervisor. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });