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February 8, 2021
Alex M. Saunders, MD
Redwood City
Regarding comments by Archbishop Gomez in CSF Jan. 20, 2021, one should be careful with statistics one quotes. In this case Archbishop Gomez cites “nearly a million lives are cast aside yearly through abortion.”
A more careful look at the lives lost (LL) estimates: LL by Induced abortion, 1.0 million; LL by spontaneous abortion, 1.5 million; total abortion LL, 2.5 million.
With the 22% to 75% estimate of fertilized eggs spontaneously lost before implantation, the U.S. total annual “lives cast aside” by church definition nudges 6 million.
Gomez expects Biden to change U.S. abortion laws. How about changing church contraception laws as partial solution? Total “lives cast aside” could be reduced by more than 2 million with the church’s “good will” contribution to a compromise. Preventing fertilization reduces both natural LL who cannot be saved and induced abortion.
Biden is certainly willing to change U.S. laws attributed to a leader who ignored experts. The church should be willing to do the same.
Archbishop Cordileone writing about Speaker Pelosi’s comments on single-issue Catholic voters is a difficult read. The basic duty of Catholic bishops is teaching. With no evaluation, not even mention of four more years’ prospect of an amoral and incompetent administration that joins the single-issue vote, the archbishop’s essay is unbalanced. Credible teaching involves unbiased clarity and reasoning, not recitation of doctrine. Real laws about abortion will come from Congress to replace Supreme Court decisions. It is the USCCB’s obligation to really teach the population before those laws are introduced.
Pelosi may be wrong about abortion but works hard for the wishes and welfare of the United States.
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