Letters: Readers discuss KCK student mentor, miscarriages and Missouri AG Schmitt
Help needed
Shawnee Mission LULAC — the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation’s oldest Hispanic organization, founded in 1929 by Hispanic World War I veterans — strongly condemns the actions alleged against the founder of Warriors 4 Wyandotte, who is accused of sending inappropriate text messages to teenage girls his group mentors. (Dec. 14, 9A, “School mentor accused of inappropriate messaging”)
Many of these young women at the high school are from lower-income homes, and they struggle daily to survive. We agree with The Star Editorial Board: “It’s a great idea and a needed service, which has no doubt helped many students. But all that good would not justify anything as inappropriate as these two young women are alleging.”
Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools must find additional means to inspire the young women in the district.
- Rudy Padilla, President, Shawnee Mission LULAC, Overland Park
Miscarriage facts
Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that challenges Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. I have read the text of this law, as well as Texas’ recent effective ban, and I noticed a glaring omission in both laws: Neither includes any language protecting from prosecution women who miscarry or suffer unintentional loss of pregnancy.
Medical science tells us 10%-25% of all recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage, and that number could be up to 50%, including women who don’t know they’re pregnant. Under these new bans, women with difficult pregnancies who suffer unintentional fetal loss will end up being investigated, even prosecuted, on suspicion of obtaining clandestine abortions — especially as states crack down on out-of-state abortions and at-home medical abortions.
We do not have to imagine this — Alabama is already giving us a preview with its “chemical endangerment of a child” statute, which allows the state to prosecute mothers it suspects of exposing fetuses to controlled substances, including prescription drugs.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule next summer. It will likely overturn Roe v. Wade or hollow it out so that it becomes meaningless. Then some states will ban elective abortions.
I pray that lawmakers committed to ending elective abortion by legislative means will consider it as important to protect women who choose to keep difficult pregnancies as to punish women who choose not to.
- Joseph J. Ekstrand, Overland Park
Off the hook?
I have been trying to contact Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt to register my displeasure with him interfering with local health offices when we just surpassed 800,000 deaths from COVID-19. I called his office in Kansas City and was transferred to “constituent services,” where a recording told me to leave a voicemail, but that was followed by a message that the mailbox was full, followed by a hang-up. The Jefferson City office is no better.
Isn’t he on my payroll? I think it would be easier to get in touch with John Lennon. And we are supposed to send this man to the U.S. Senate? I don’t think so.
- Lynne P. Clock, Kansas City
Future sight
The school shootings in Michigan, tornadoes in Kentucky and more than 800,000 dead Americans from COVID-19 remind us of our mortality. They also remind us that we should be taking our lives and those of our loved ones, friends and neighbors more seriously.
But to show we are serious, we have to act. Thoughts and prayers won’t cut it. The best way is to vote for people who realize that increased access to guns really does cost lives, that climate change is real and here now, and that COVID is devastating our people as well as our economy.
This should be simple. If you’re too old or cynical to care, do it for your kids and their kids. Do you really love them? If so, help keep them alive. What would Jesus do?
- Scott D. Roby, Lenexa
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss KCK student mentor, miscarriages and Missouri AG Schmitt."