Web Letters: 'Global Gag Rule' Lifted

Barbara Crossette has succinctly addressed an important human rights issue getting short shrift in the news. Birth control is like any of the other things those in power get their hands on and sometimes intentionally drive into a ditch. Why do they do this? Because they can. Their ugly sentiments about women--and poor black women in particular--are outright sexist and racist. Why else would a nation as scientifically advanced as ours promote "celibacy" and "abstinence only" as the nearly exclusive birth control methods we endorse? These have the highest failure rates, making unwed mothers who've bought into such religious precepts (and failed) add guilt to their pile of burdens. Creating such misery is truly sociopathic. Forcing poor women here and abroad to either have babies or back-alley abortions is a wretched, immoral doctrine. Good riddance.

Michael T Heath

Hinesburg, VT