I’m writing in response to the Oct. l9 letter placed by Christine Mize entitled, Choice made before conception. It’s clearly evident that Ms. Mize vehemently disapproves of abortion, referring to it as immoral and comparing its legality in America to the genocide practiced in Nazi Germany. The debate over abortion’s moral character seems to me an infinite dispute. Therefore, I have no intentions of taking Ms. Mize to task over her basic disapproval for abortion. However, as President of the Jackson County Right to Life, Ms. Mize needs to brush up on her reasoning a bit if she yearns to be vocal.

Logic is associated to reasoning and how conclusions are drawn as a result. As such, when confronted with some one’s opinion I’m inclined to ask, Does the conclusion drawn result from the correct process of irrefutable reason? If so, you have a decent conclusion even if it differs from my own. However, if faulty reasoning is used to substantiate a view, you have nothing but rootless rhetoric forming, in Ms. Mize’s case, meaningless propaganda.

First, I fully concur with Ms. Mize’s opening argument that choice involves responsible behavior before the act of sex, although I don’t think I would label those who waive the consequences of it killers. However, when Ms. Mize makes use of historical overtones to substantiate her view, such as her statement, Our founding fathers would be appalled to see that we have made a moral wrong a right, things tend to fall apart. The reason, quite simply, is because throughout colonial and revolutionary American History abortion was perfectly legal in most instances.

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The attempt to curtail abortion in America was a nineteenth century development. In fact, before 1821 abortion was fully legal in all states as long as its application predated quickening (the point when a mother feels movement in the womb). When abortion statutes did surface in some states in 1821, they were not devised to eradicate the deed, but rather to protect pregnant women from reckless practitioners. By the Civil War, twenty of the thirty-three American states had developed such statutes, some of which did act as encumbrances.

Eventually, after the Civil War, a drive was initiated to eliminate abortion altogether. It was a crusade led mainly by wealthy physicians who, in addition to its moral infirmities, feared abortion’s popular rise was curtailing native American reproduction in favor of immigrants from Ireland and Eastern Europe another fine example of shoddy reasoning.

Unfortunately for Ms. Mize, James Madison probably wrote the Constitution fully aware of abortion’s legality. Furthermore, I’ve read the Declaration of Independence three times and have yet to see the word fetus. Perhaps Ms. Mize feels that the strain of a Confederation at war was more than Jefferson’s memory could bear. Shouldn’t Jefferson and Madison have remembered the innocent? By not doing so, they all but implicitly legalized the[ir] extermination. I’m sure Hitler read it that way.

Perhaps, as Ms. Mize asserts, a prevalence of godly morals would remedy much of our present homicidal tendencies. But I have to wonder why it didn’t help Madison and Jefferson. Perhaps Jefferson explained his case best in 1787 when he wrote, He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not..

Finally, Ms. Mize seems upset that the pro-life supplement in the DE was perceived by many, April Pruitt in particular, as inaccurate propaganda. As a woman possessing a position requiring responsible vocal leadership, Ms. Mize should examine Ms. Pruitt’s Oct. 17 Perspectives column not her opinion, but her style. Remember, any form of reasoning that doesn’t faultlessly support a conclusion is bound to produce what many will perceive as nonsense. Also, when you structure your argument around scathing rhetoric instead of substantial facts, you have something Hitler himself was quite adept at propaganda. But if that’s what you vow to promote, I assure you you’re doing it well.

Steven Smith is a graduate student in history.