To the editor:

Once again the vigilantes of death have struck at the hearts and souls of this nation. All legitimate pro-life individuals and organizations grieve the loss of Dr. Slepian, who was gunned down in his own home and in front of his family. What have these terrorists accomplished by their wanton act of violence? They took the life of a loving husband and father who, although misguided in his profession, did not deserve to be murdered. They managed to make this man a martyr to the pro-choice coalition and have given it an issue to rally around to energize their resolves to fight even harder for their cause. They have hurt and embarrassed all legitimate pro-life grass-roots organizations causing them to all to be branded as crazed terrorists. They have set back our cause tremendously at a critical time, with the elections a couple of days away. Because of the slanted news reports, many pro-life candidates in several major races haven taken nosedives, according to the polls, and many pro-life incumbents may be defeated. News media have been unfair and biased in their reporting of the incident. Because most newspapers rely on stories reported by the Associated Press and Reuters, both of whom chose to ignore mainstream pro-life groups and to interview only representatives of fanatical fringe groups who support abortion-related violence and pro-abortion organizations. ABC, CNN, MSNBC and CBS also chose not to interview members of legitimate pro-life organizations and instead chose to interview the fanatics and members of pro-abortion groups such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood and to refer to their Web page in their reporting. As a result, the public is given the impression that pro-life people either support this violence or that we don't care. Many will hold us in disrepute because they believe that we have not condemned this horror. We must not allow the Associated Press and Reuters to lead the people into thinking that we support this abortion-related violence. For those of us who have computers and are on the Internet, we can e-mail the Associated Press and Carolyn Thompson, the author of these biased stories which have been printed in newspapers throughout the U.S. at cthompson@ap.org. For those of us who do not have a computer, you can register your complaint by writing to the Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10020. If you choose to register your complaint, please be courteous and do not make threats. Remember that Tuesday is Election Day. I ask everyone going to the polls to believe that pro-life groups do not support terrorism of any kind and to vote with your conscience. Murder is murder, whether in the womb or out of it. CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau