Emergency ending of Missouri woman’s pregnancy was never abortion. It was basic care | Opinion

Hospitals’ risk

As a perinatal registered nurse, I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Induction of labor with Missouri woman Mylissa Farmer’s pregnancy emergency was prudent and best care. Despite The Star’s headline, this was not an abortion. (May 2, 1A, “MO hospitals illegally denied emergency abortion”)

In the care of spontaneous release of membranes in a preterm premature fetus (under 20 weeks), the chances of the pregnancy continuing are extremely low. Babies who survive this condition before 20 weeks are indeed miracles.

Infection and insufficient production of amniotic fluid are significant concerns and can increase the mother’s risk of complications and death. This woman should have been cared for and given the option to wait or induce — both of which are standard care in this situation.

The fact that hospitals stopped offering what we know to be best care based on the potential liability (because that was their only reason for not offering appropriate care) shows the amount of corruption and greed in our medical care system.

Basically, the hospitals chose to avoid the risk of fines and penalties over the appropriate care of a patient.

- Chantel Haynes, Sedalia

Group effort

The Missouri Beverage Association joined with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, local leaders and sustainability experts on May 1 to overhaul residential recycling with the distribution of standardized, high-capacity carts. (March 31, 1A, “Kansas City rolling out new recycling carts — with lids”) This modernization will increase the recyclables collected and start a recycling education program, making recycling easier and more efficient.

This public-private project does not end with the new carts. It also includes funding for educational resources to cut down on contamination and eliminate confusion about what can and cannot be recycled.

We recognize that improving recycling rates is a shared responsibility for producers and consumers alike. This immense modernization and education effort, which will affect nearly 500,000 Missourians, was made possible, in part, through a $3 million investment from the beverage industry’s Every Bottle Back initiative.

In Kansas City, the investment is projected to yield 165 million pounds of new recyclables, including 6.4 million pounds of PET plastic.

At Missouri Beverage, we are dedicated to serving our customers and the communities where we operate. We know the new and improved recycling carts and educational resources are only the beginning of what can be accomplished together to achieve a more circular economy in Kansas City.

- Bill Gamble, Executive director, Missouri Beverage Association, Jefferson City

Over the cliff?

At the end of their fictional movie, Thelma and Louise committed suicide. The end of our debt crisis has not been written, but it looks as if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene are driving and the rest of America is being held hostage in the backseat. (May 3, 1A, “Biden seeks debt ceiling talks as US faces June 1 default”)

America’s debt is based on money already spent through our democratic appropriations process. The party in power during the previous administration racked up nearly $8 trillion — roughly 25% of our current debt. Where were the calls for fiscal sanity then? They spent like drunken sailors and now refuse to pay their tab. That’s not how it works.

The time to control spending is when the money is being appropriated, not when the bill comes due. When your kid racks up huge credit card debt, you take away the card but you also pay the bill so that your own credit is not destroyed.

We may be a country divided, but this is not the time for our leaders to inflict irreparable damage to America’s credit and to harm literally every one of us in the process. Contact your U.S. representatives and tell them so. Mine already understands the stakes, and she wants to stop the madness.

- Scott D. Roby, Lenexa

See no evil

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court reminds me of the Iraq War and Baghdad Bob’s rosy and misleading updates: What problem?

- Jim Kilen, Kansas City