To the editor:

Abortion is the issue that keeps on giving to cynical politicians who milk the issue for money and votes. They are drawn to it like maggots to a festering wound. It’s all about heat and no light, about opposing sides screaming at each other across an ideological abyss. That’s just what those politicians want to perpetuate. It works so well for them.

I’m an old guy so I have never had to face the terrible decisions that many women have to face. The politicians making the laws about abortion are guys (many of them old) who will never know what it is like to be a woman faced with those decisions.

My personal belief is that abortion beyond the first trimester is always tragic, but in some cases it is the lesser evil. I recall that a few years ago the advocates for legal abortion said that it should be safe, legal and rare. Then the word “rare” was dropped. For some, abortion is the No. 1 women’s issue, crowding out all the other issues that negatively affect women. That is wrong.

Christians look to the Bible as the authoritative foundation of their beliefs. However, an explicit prohibition of abortion can’t be found anywhere in the Bible. Those who call themselves Christians, i.e., followers of Jesus, should note that there is no reference in the Gospels to Jesus having said or done anything concerning abortion. Meanwhile, Jesus’ actual moral teachings are ignored.

What scientific research shows is that in nature and without abortion somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of zygotes (the first cells of life) are naturally destroyed and never become born babies. That is what nature teaches us about the Natural Law. Nature allows a virtual holocaust of “babies” at the earliest life stages, usually before there are any indications of pregnancy. What should that tell us about Natural Law as it relates to abortion and about God’s plan as reflected by Nature? You figure it out. Use your mind. Just don’t fall for the cynical political trash.

John H. Burns

Willmar, formerly of Marshall