While Rep. Heath Shuler's reelection campaign pays for a polling agency to call voters in the 11th District, asking if they would support him if he votes with other supporters of health-care reform, other principled leaders across the nation are leading the way in forming a health-care bill that is pro-life, pro-seniors and pro-family. Where is our congressman's leadership?
Shuler says he is pro-life, but as far as I can see, it's all posturing for reelection. The health-care bill that he should vote for this week would not provide any government funding for abortions — and, more proactively, it would support women who need help seeing a doctor in order to get contraceptives and health care for their children. An article in the March 14 Washington Post said it best: Americans have the highest rate of abortion in the world, and not because the British, Japanese and Canadians are better Christians than we are. On the contrary, it is because these countries provide affordable health care for all their citizens. Go to http://data.un.org to read the statistics, which show that, as the Post article put it, "when it comes to abortion rates in the developed world, we're No. 1."
If a teenage girl in Haywood County finds out she is pregnant, she is much more likely to consider an abortion if she is unable to see a doctor to get prenatal care, counseling and support for her pregnancy, and care for herself and her child after the child is born. How do I know that? I'm no genius — I just know and talk to plenty of young women.
What can we do in the 11th District to support life? We can start by having our representative vote for health-care reform — reform that shows we truly value a child's life, from conception to adulthood.
— Mary Alice Lamb
Waynesville
Editors' note: On March 21, the U.S> House of Representatives passed a health-care reform bill. Rep. Shuler voted against it.
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