Your Opinion: Hypocrisy about "traditional values'

Dear Editor:

The end of the legislative session is mere weeks away. The party of "traditional values" is willing to force a child to incubate a fetus and then force her into a life of motherhood she never wanted and a life of poverty she cannot escape.

In 1986 I became pregnant at age 16 and was never given a choice as to whether I would carry to term or not. My abusive, drunken, Christian parents made that decision for me.

As punishment they refused to obtain health insurance for me or enroll me in Medicaid. That birth cost thousands of dollars due to a C-section and a six-day hospital stay and ultimately forced me into bankruptcy by age 18.

HB1370 requiring both parents to be notified before a minor can have an abortion is cruel punishment to a child. The Republicans in the Legislature consider this "protecting innocent life'. What about the life of the child forced to carry to term a pregnancy she does not want?

I was forced to quit high school and began the exhausting life of working two jobs. I have been in the labor force since I was 14 years old.

Working two jobs at low wages, I relied on public assistance for two decades. Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start, WIC, etc. were all needed to provide that child a semi-decent life.

The political party that touts "smaller government" is creating more need for assistance by creating barriers to abortion care for minors and cutting services, all the while professing "traditional values," a.k.a. Christianity.

Because I strived to excel and built a good life, my son graduated college. I broke the cycle of poverty.

SJR39 purports to protect the religious freedom of Missourians. Sen. Mike Kehoe seeks to put it on the ballot, saying he trusts and respects our right to decide whether discriminating against homosexuals will be lawful in Missouri.

I can be trusted to make this decision but as a woman I cannot be trusted to make decisions about my own body and my own life?

My son is a gay man. Judging by the majority party's intolerance, they are thinking differently about my pregnancy now. Hypocrisy reveals "traditional values" to be a sham.

The party of "traditional values" judges children who are faced with unbearable decisions about their bodies and lives while simultaneously promoting a religion that has historically protected pedophile priests.