Pregnancy and Personal Freedom

Hey, that Norah Vincent is onto something (“Feminists Have No Womb for Anyone Else,” Commentary, March 29). But I think drug-testing pregnant women without their consent is only a first step. There are thousands of pregnant women running around loose doing whatever they please, just like regular people. Think how many fetuses could be saved if these women were put in state-run pregnancy farms where they could be monitored 24/7. And why stop there? A lot of women are pregnant but don’t show it. Let’s randomly test all women of childbearing age and throw them in jail if they turn out to be smoking, drinking, eating, watching, listening to or thinking anything that could be harmful to fetuses. I nominate Vincent to organize the whole thing.

Meanwhile, I think I’ll move to a more enlightened country. Afghanistan is supposed to be nice this time of year.

KATE BAKER

Sherman Oaks

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Vincent’s tone was bitter (perhaps rightly so), but her content was directly and correctly to the point. The Supreme Court has continued to compound its initial error in Roe vs. Wade by ruling that hospitals may not test a pregnant woman for drugs for police purposes without either a search warrant or the woman’s consent. This ruling totally ignores the rights of the unborn child and the duties of those responsible for a pregnancy (including the male). Human life is precious. We must stop poisoning human life in the womb as well as cease destroying it by abortion. The time will come when a generation more enlightened than our own will look back upon our era with shock and will ask in astonishment how we could have engaged in such a primitive, barbaric disregard for human life in its very font.

CHARLES E. MILLER

Camarillo