“On Roe’s 33rd anniversary, a chill wind blows,” a Jan. 20 BDN op-ed written by the movers and shakers of Maine’s abortion industry – George Hill, Ruth Lockhart and Nancy Mosher, CEOs of Family Planning, Mabel Wadsworth Center and Planned Parenthood (PP) – is a conflict-of-interest commentary and full of misrepresentation.

They claim Samuel Alito is a threat to safe legal abortions, yet they know very well that abortion is not, and never will be, safe. PP’s own release forms (the fine print of course) refer to “inherent risks” in abortion procedures. Their minor consent form informs their victims that complications could develop that “require hospitalization” and speaks of “major complications” and “severe consequences” of abortion.

PP’s 1963 booklet reads: “An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health.” Many more women die from abortion and its numerous complications today than before Supreme Court legalizations, primarily because there are so many times more abortions today.

Twenty-nine studies link abortion to breast cancer; 13 in the United States. Before 45 million legal abortions since 1973, one in 12 contracted it. Today, it is one in seven.

PP performs the largest number of abortions in the United States (244,628 in 2004), ranking $104 million.

The most commonly prescribed birth control pills are on the World Health Organization’s highest classification of carcinogenicity list, causing breast, liver and cervical cancer. The birth control patch has killed a dozen women, mostly teens in 2004. Norplant has injured and caused blindness in so many and has been sued out of existence.

We should not be forced to pay $265 million in tax money each year for PP killing and injuring our women and children. Visit www.stopplannedparenthoodtaxfunding.com and sign the petition. You may very well save some lives.

Ron J. Stauble Sr.

Unity