It is unfortunate when our elected leaders continue to mislead the public. Jon Buss’ letter (“Shrier is the real extremist”, published Oct. 19) shows the result of the Big Lie and all the attendant paranoia being visited upon the citizenry.
Dr. Kim Schrier, as a pediatrician, has no doubt treated victims of horrid abuse. To force a woman or child to suffer the risks of pregnancy and childbirth when she is unwilling, for whatever reason, is to treat 52% of us as incompetent. Consider how you might feel if the state determined that your kidney was needed for another, despite your wishes. During surgery, they decided to take a chunk of your liver, as well. But after nine months, you get your organ back, with a bonus: another whole human to support and provide for over the next 20 years!
They can’t just take my organ, you say? Children and women are being denied life saving abortions because the hospital attorneys or state legislatures have proscribed the health care treatment protocols for incomplete miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, and abortions of both normal pregnancies and compromised fetuses. The maternal mortality rate is up 80% due to COVID, and death rates are higher for black and brown mothers. OB/Gyn physicians are leaving the profession, and teaching hospitals aren’t training on dilation and curettages and dilation and evacuations. Women will have abortions, always have: the question is whether they will survive to raise their existing children.
One major party will not state a platform. The Democratic party platform is available on their website. A thoughtful person will realize that President Biden and the Democratic bare majorities have made progress in each of these areas. There is a ton of work to be done, but one party is planning to tank the worldwide economy via the debt ceiling in order to win in 2024 and the other is trying to address the needs of all Americans, regardless of ZIP code.
As the midterms approach, it is important to watch what they do, not what they say. This week, the minority leader says if the GOP advances in November, they will be changing the entitlements. Those are the programs (Medicare/Social Security) that all workers are entitled to since we paid into them. They intend to raise the eligible age for benefits to 70 from 62/65.
And Medicare? Not a single Republican voted for Medicare to negotiate drug prices or for limiting out of pocket costs of insulin and total annual limits on prescriptions, and they promise their financiers they will roll those limits back if they win in November.
Putin’s war in Ukraine is causing worldwide inflation, but corporate profits are at 54%. One party is addressing inflation, the other was MIA. Yes, gas costs too much. Which party is always protecting the oil and gas industry? When your wife is dying of sepsis, the cost of gas will not be top of mind.
Shawn Johnson
Enumclaw
