Re: “Abortion rights advocates never use the word ‘baby’ ” (Letters to the editor, June 4):
Rich Russek claims that because we grieve with a woman who loses a pregnancy, and express our sorrow at the loss of her “baby,” use of that term magically makes the fetus a fully developed infant.
I have lost a pregnancy, and my grief was not for the fetus but for the infant I imagined it would have become. My sorrow would have been very different had I lost the pregnancy after giving birth to a full-term “baby.”
It is true that one’s view on abortion is informed by definition. When does a fertilized egg become a human life – a “baby”? Opinions on this differ from person to person. I don’t force my beliefs on this on others, and ask them – particularly men who haven’t been pregnant or lost a pregnancy – to not try to (legally) force their beliefs on me.
Debra Hunter
San Jose
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