To the editor:

Pregnancy is not a disease. Fertility is a normal body function. Contraceptives say “pregnancy is a disease to be avoided.” It says “take a woman’s healthy body and make it unhealthy.”

Rep. Paul Davis said, “If we can make contraceptives more available, we can lower the number of unwanted pregnancies.” Wrong. Human Life International says in every country that has legalized contraception, abortion always followed. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey on June 29, 1992, states “for two decades (since Roe v. Wade) of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.” Contraceptives fail.

The U.S. abortion rate is declining because of abstinence programs. Look at the abortion rate survey more closely. The abortion rate for adolescents declined 18 percent among teens 18-19 and 39 percent among teens 15-17. Compare that to an 11 percent decline overall. Fifty-one percent of U.S. school districts promote abstinence as the preferred option for adolescents. The 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System found that high school teens who remained virgins rose 19 percent between 1991 and 2001. We need a bill to promote abstinence.

Donna Roush,

Lawrence