Do you wonder why Christians you think are reasonable can STILL support Trump, even if they know he’s immoral and incompetent? It’s because they think they’re saving babies. He doesn’t need to be eloquent or even have policy plans. All he has to do is say certain magic words, like law and order, and in this case, abortion. For good measure, say “nine month” abortion, and you have secured a moral imperative in which the ends justify the means.

It’s not about saving babies though.

If it’s about saving babies, you would be FOR birth control, right?You wouldn’t have pushed for the 2014 Supreme Court decision that allows private companies to deny birth control coverage to their employees if it opposes their religious beliefs. Women earning less than a living wage will not be able to afford birth control and therefore possibly be faced with unintended pregnancies. Will they have abortions? Maybe, maybe not. But you didn’t have to put them in this position! You could’ve just allowed them the contraception and the education to prevent unintended pregnancies. Voila! No abortion necessary.

If it’s about saving babies, you would not be so adamant about overturning Roe v Wade
The data is in: abortions have declined to its lowest levels since Roe passed. The reasons are unclear, but the theories seems to coincide with changing social norms, as well as increased access.
More women are expected to work, to get some postsecondary education, and to support their families, which make unplanned childbearing more costly and the benefits of delay much greater. The second reason is greater access to and increased use of the most effective forms of contraception, such as long-acting reversible contraceptives.( Sawhill and Guhot, Brookings, June 24, 2019)

If Roe is overturned, abortions will continue. If public opinion is a gauge, the majority of Americans are not opposed to abortion. 61% think that abortion should be legal in all or most cases while 38% believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. If a woman’s life situation compels her to end the pregnancy, she will, no matter the risk. Young people support abortion rights, and if their current fervor for activism is an indication, they will not easily acquiesce to rights being taken away.
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If you succeed in criminalizing all abortions, they would be moved underground as before, unsafe and illegal. Women with means would be able to have them safely, and women without means would likely resort to desperate unsafe measures. That’s how it was back then, in the dark ages. Mentioning the methods is just too sad, but you can google it.

Another of my letters to the editor during the election season.

Explaining the hate
Mr. Tombo Lono asks the question, why all the hate toward President Donald Trump? He goes on to lavish praise on him and his family. At first, I thought it was satire, then I saw that he was serious. Mr. Lono sounds like a sweet man, and genuinely confused about why there’s so much hate toward our current president. Mr. Lono and others, you have chosen to represent Trump, so you have to accept that a lot of people in “blue” Hawaii are angry at him.

They are directing their anger at you, his supporters. They are angry because almost every single day, even before the pandemic, he has given us reasons to be angry. From being elected president despite what he said on tape about grabbing women’s private parts to mishandling the pandemic to the last atrocity about not denouncing white supremacy, and thousands of reasons in between, he has made us angry and ashamed that he is our president. We equate Trump with incompetence, dishonesty, and racism. We hate that.
Diane Aoki
Kealakekua