I am writing the following as a much-needed response to Dave Moberg’s commentary on the April 19 issue (“Pregnant women need both education and services”) of The Northeastern News.

I hope Dave Moberg never gains a political position in this country. He misused so many ideas and words, as good little future politicians do, that I don’t believe he knows the meaning of any. For example, women who decide to have abortions were deemed selfish. In reality, it would be selfish to force a child into a world without a mother’s love. It would also be selfish to force women who simply aren’t ready to become mothers to give birth because that’s what some man in a political position believes in – or must cater to in order to keep his powerful position.

What does this have to do with Moberg? Perhaps he’s hoping for a political position and support after college. However, words like his could dictate (and have dictated) certain women’s lives. I’m guessing Moberg isn’t going to become pregnant anytime soon.

Having sex is not a “perverse” lifestyle. Smart people wear condoms. Others use birth control pills. But sometimes a condom slips off, the pill is counteracted, etc. A woman accidentally becomes pregnant. Abortion, a last resort choice, must be readily available to all women. Having an abortion doesn’t make someone a bad person, and it doesn’t justify people meddling in the lives of others. No one is forcing Moberg to have an abortion, or anyone else to for that matter. It is a choice. It’s already a difficult decision to make without strangers screaming bloody murder.

Moberg even went to the extreme of using Margaret Sanger’s racist attitude to justify his antiabortion stance. Sometimes evil people believe in something similar to good people, but for the wrong reasons. I could argue that Adolf Hitler was opposed to smoking to justify that smoking is fine and dandy, and anyone against smoking is an evil dictator. But that argument would be irrelevant, just as Moberg’s argument using Sanger is irrelevant.

To address the issue of promiscuity, it only takes one shot to become pregnant, and only females of the human species become pregnant. Abortion can become a man’s decision when men are able to become pregnant. Wouldn’t that be great? If all women who became pregnant were promiscuous, then all our mothers – gasp! – are whores. However, I don’t believe safe, responsible sexual freedom or premarital sex makes one a whore.

If a woman chooses to have a child, great! If she chooses not to have a child, great! I hope I never have to make that decision, but what’s more, I hope no one else makes it for me.

Instead of trying to make abortion illegal – which is likely to increase women’s deaths from infection and dead babies in dumpsters – let’s concentrate on preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place. Teenage pregnancies make up a large portion. According to the United Nations, the teenage pregnancy rate in the U.S. is more than seven times as high as in the Netherlands, while the Netherlands has one of the lowest teen pregnancy rates in Europe.

I suggest this country start learning from the Dutch. Their approach to sex education is to be admired and applied. They give students aged 12 to 15 the facts about sex, sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptives, while still allowing open discussion. Programs like this are often mandatory in many other developed nations.

In fact, the Dutch Foundation for Sexually Transmitted Disease Control has included churches, health officials and family planning organizations in this straightforward approach. Much research and decades of practice has been put into “the Dutch Model.”

Future – responsible – politicians need to look into improving preventative education, rather than making laws that trap women by limiting their options. Remember the “science” in political science. Don’t be like Dave