THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409240003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Kawana Michele Ashley, 19 years old and five months' pregnant, was turned away from an abortion clinic because she lacked $1,800 for an abortion. Trying to free herself from a hopeless future, ``she allegedly placed a .22 caliber pistol to her womb and pulled the trigger'' (The Virginian-Pilot, Sept. 19).
Baby Brittany, born prematurely and with a bullet wound through her wrist, died 15 days later, and Kawana Michele wept over her grave.
It's not surprising that Kawana Michele tried to abort what was growing inside of her, since society has said it was not ``life.''
It is not surprising that economically disadvantaged Kawana Michele was turned away from the abortion clinic, since abortion has become the resource of the economically advantaged.
Nor is it surprising that feminists want to use Kawana Michele as an icon in their pro-choice campaign or that the right-to-life movement is using her as a pawn in its own platform.
What's surprsing is that we seem to overlook the fact that Kawana Michele is being charged with manslaughter and third-degree murder while abortionists are treated without impunity.
Brittany would have been unimportant and obscure and Kawana Ashley free of any charges had an abortionist done - more humanely, some would argue - to Brittany what her mother did.
Inside her mother's womb, Brittany Ashley was not considered a ``life'' or a ``victim.'' Yet outside of the womb, at the same stage, she is now a ``life'' and a ``victim.''
Could our hypocrisy be any more obvious?
JUANITA WEISS
Chesapeake, Sept. 16, 1994 by CNB