To the editor:

This is a response to the comment in the July 27 Speak Out, "It's time to stand up to abortion extremists." I appreciate the comment very much, for without an open dialogue, how can we ever learn? How can we ever overcome our differences?

I would like to comment on being accused of being an abortion extremist. An abortion extremist is a person who in his heart knows that abortion and euthanasia are morally wrong. An abortion extremist feels very defensive and gets very angry whenever another person tries to explain why abortions are wrong. I consider myself a pro-life advocate.

Religion has absolutely nothing to do with protecting the rights of the unborn and the helpless. Many pro-life advocates are religious. So are many pro-abortion people.

The pro-life progression -- first it was late-term abortions, then the abortion advocates switched to midterm abortions -- the caller talked about is all wrong. Twenty-eight states have passed a ban on late-term infanticide. Only eight states have had their laws upheld by the courts. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU continue to fight to keep these brutal procedures legal in the other states.

No pro-life advocate to my knowledge has ever tried to convert anyone to his religion or impose his religious beliefs on anyone.

The American public was finally sold on the idea of abortion as a means of protecting the life of the mother from the back-alley, coat-hanger abortions. Just a week ago another so-called doctor was disciplined for the fourth time after allowing a patient to bleed to death from a torn uterus that he caused while doing an abortion.

Finally, if it's not a baby, then a woman is not pregnant. So if a pregnant woman thinks partial-birth abortion or any abortion is good for her lifestyle, before she enters that clinic she should think to herself, "Do I feel lucky today?"

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau