To the editor:

It will indeed be tragic if it is proven that a death occurred during a recent abortion at the Wichita abortion clinic.

However, it is hardly necessary to point out that every abortion does involve a death. I know there are many who will not accept that an unborn fetus is human and will argue the fine points of when life inside the womb actually begins.

Since we can’t agree on the time that life in the womb begins, wouldn’t it be the mark of a kinder, gentler nation to give it the benefit of the doubt and refrain from interfering with the development of a new human being? Instead, all means available should be utilized to protect that developing life, and to nurture and encourage the mother-to-be during pregnancy and after the birth.

Doesn’t it seem strange that a hospital may have one section devoted to bringing babies into the world and going to great lengths in some cases to assure that the child will live, while in another part of the hospital there are pre-born lives being snuffed out routinely? It is a frightening paradox, and a mark of a society that has lost its values.

Marjorie Kincaid,

Lawrence