To the Editor:

As I left home in 1969 at the age of 18, my grandmother counseled that should one of “my friends” become pregnant unexpectedly, there was a recipe to end the pregnancy, but only if taken right away. She then proceeded to share the ingredients, one of which was turpentine.

This is the way it was before Roe v Wade: Women passed ways of terminating unwanted pregnancies woman to woman, generation to generation, and many of the ways were unsafe. Some involved soaking tampons in toxic chemicals like turpentine or mouse poop, called “pessaries,” to end the pregnancy; other techniques involved douching with a toxic mixture. Inserting sharp objects such as coat hangers (yes, these were used) was also employed.

Other women went for so-called back alley abortions, which often were in unsterile environments, leading to infection and even death. My cousin recently called me distraught, reliving a time in the mid-1960s when, as a Las Vegas police officer, he found the dead body of a young woman in a dumpster as a result of a botched abortion.

Religion is often used to justify ending abortion rights. So what does the Bible say specifically about abortion? It says little, though Numbers 5:11-31 suggests a husband could test the wife’s faithfulness by having the high priest give her a potion and if it caused an abortion, it proved her infidelity.

When does life begin, according to the Bible? Not at conception, but at the first breath, according to Genesis 2:7, which says that after God formed man, he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” While many verses refer to God forming us in the womb, this one specifically addresses becoming “living souls” after formation.

Exodus 21:22 clearly does not equate the life of the fetus and the woman. It says the penalty for causing a miscarriage is a fine; the penalty for causing the death of the woman is death.

A dear high school friend was horribly sexually abused and raped repeated by her father. Had she become pregnant at the age of 13 by her pedophile of a father, according to Republican Ohio State Rep. Jean Schmidt, that would have been an “opportunity” for my friend.

My friend would disagree with her.

Ginger Storey-Welch
Colton