Abortion war of words

Regarding “No faith in court ruling” (Open Forum, May 8): The opinion piece on the leaked Roe v. Wade ruling argues that a fetus is not the same as a human life, and that when a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life, it must be terminated.

The piece was an inadvertent reminder to me of how the pro-abortion movement has lost the word “life” to anti-abortionists. We need to take it back.

An abortion is not just about controlling our own bodies, it’s about protecting the physical, emotional and intellectual life of the mother. The one too young to raise a child alone. The one raped by an abuser. The one who can’t afford a bigger family.

The one who might die from delivery: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 700 pregnancy-related deaths happen each year in the U.S. The maternal mortality rate for 2020 was nearly 24 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Messaging matters. The pro-abortionists language of controlling our own bodies is logical, but it doesn’t resonate against the near-magic of the language of pro-life. Abortion supporters are pro-life, too: the life of the woman.

Susan Gluss, Berkeley

My letter appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 23, 2022