Dear FRONTLINE,

I am the father of 4 day old son. As such, I found it quite odd the father seemed removed from the narrative especially since many states require women to be aware of the father's legal rights. As a reflection of the program, I am unsure of the 'side' to be on. However, I know the issues and I am empowered to make a decision...if I choose. That was not the case a decade agon when I was starting high school. I saw many girls become pregnant and simply disappear from the classes. My own niece could not obtain an abortion, left school and eventually gave her child away. To this day, she has not finished high school and has made a living at HOOTERS. I grew to realize we as a society are much too inconsistent. We think all women should keep their fetuses, but we slash government assistance to single mothers who want a good quality of life for their child.

Anyways, I just wanted to say: I still enjoy FRONTLINE.

Todd Vin
Atlanta, Georgia

Dear FRONTLINE,

I found it very telling that one of the Pro-Life women stated that they want to give the choice back to the people. To remove Roe v. Wade and let the people decide by voting for their representatives. What is wrong with letting women choose for themselves? The Pro-Life woman who described her decision to not have an abortion while she was a poor white women in college and how God helped her through everything, then tried to compare herself to the poor black women in the delta shows just how out of touch with reality these people are.

Vance Newman
Longview, TX

Dear FRONTLINE,

I can only hope this type of fundamentalism doesn't reach our state. Women should always have a choice; moreover, people in general don't always have a grasp at what is at stake for these women. Finally, nothing in life is perfect or completely just, let the individual, or individuals decide.

Mary Nezarevic
Circle Pines, Minnesota

Dear FRONTLINE,

There is no economic gain in fighting for the preservation of life but much financial benefit is lost to abortion providers. How else can doctors fly in and out of Mississippi to perform these abortions? For that same reason, many young women cannot afford an abortion. It is a big industry. Frontline featured the "unnamed" abortion clinic favorably by showing them taking the time to talk with potential clients. Those extensive regulations are what keeps the practice somewhat humane. The reality I hear over and over again is in many cases; abortions are performed in such a cold dehumanizing fashion where mothers are surgically processed as if they're going through a production line. That to me is degradation of womanhood for the sake of profit.

Corie Moore
Harrisburg, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Frontline presented an excellent program showing the chipping away of abortion rights. Unless the younger women counteract those who in the name of their religous views want to impose their view of what is moral, they will have their rights taken away. What Frontline though ignored is that abortion is just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed if anti-abortion folks were interested in fighting unwanted pregnancies, they would not stop sex education and emastulate it to become "abstinence only". They would support availability of contraceptives as well as emergency contraception. It shows why in the US, as a developed nation, we have the worse abortion rate due to the popular ignorance and lack of services.

Marina Brown
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Dear FRONTLINE,

I hope Mississippi's legislators are true to their pledge of putting the health of women and child first. Please notify me when prenatal care, paid family leave, statewide kindergarten, and health care coverage for the uninsured are enacted by that august body.

Terry Lorber
Lynn, MA

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am from Mississippi, but have since moved to another state. The head of the MS pro-life organization spoke about other states 'looking to Mississippi' as a positive example. I find it hard to swallow that other states would follow in these footsteps to result in a higher infant mortality rate and a larger number of teen pregnancies. What do these pro-life organizations do to help poor mothers AFTER they have 'counseled' them to have their children? The girl who had no idea she was 6 months pregnant was NOT an extreme example; she is quite typical I'm afraid. I went to high school-- middle school even-- with girls just like her. Thank you for such a thought-provoking program.

Lillian White

Dear FRONTLINE,

Having had the experience of "easy" access to an abortion I can say that I welcome the restrictions that are being put in place by legislatures all over the country. I had an abortion. I know the regret that goes with that decision. What Frontline didn't discuss was the fact that children are not the property of the mother to do with as she will. They are separate individuals with their own DNA and as such should have the full protection of the law. Even from their own mother. My child would be 18 years old. Because abortion access was "easy" I made the biggest mistake of my life. I hope that what I have written will give some other young lady pause to consider before she has an "easy" abortion.

Jill Litzinger
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

Dear FRONTLINE,

I have had my head stuck in the sand for many years regarding abortion rights. I was a middle-of-the-road Right to Choice supporter who got more wishy-washy as I reached middle age. The shake-up of the Supreme Court has dragged me out of denial, and I see that abortion rights continue to need protection. After watching this show, I see the possibility that the rights of women can be taken away much easier than I imagined. Thank you for airing such an informative and timely program.

Myra Gordon
Brighton, MA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Those of us in the Northeast with medical procedures readily available, who thought Roe v Wade protected a woman's right to choose across this Nation, were jarred into the reality of the unimaginable obstacles being instituted to prevent women from making informed decisions about their health and acting upon them. Anyone who previously thought there might be productive dialogue with the "Right to Life" organizations can now see that there is no discussion to be had. To those of us who believe that women have a right to ALL medical information and ALL procedures in safe and protected environments and to make their own informed decisions about their lives and bodies, it is time to renew, support and speak out for these beliefs. As "The Last Abortion Clinic" stated, "We are losing".

Phoebe Pollinger
Montclair, NJ

Dear FRONTLINE,

If a state continues to offer "incentives" to carry an unwanted child, uses psychological influence to incite that choice, does not offer viable choices and basically puts one in a Catch 22 situation; then that itself should be a crime. I am appalled with the attitude that a woman must continue with a pregnancy without realistic & pragmatic options. The solution is to provide real and honest social attitude changes to women who do not initially protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies, to include education at the lowest level. A child is a precious entity that deserves the best life one can offer; however a young woman who is single and does not have the option to control her destiny due to ignorance should not have to be forced to burden her life, nor the rest of society. I applaud the clinics who offer pre-natal care but detest the fact that after that no care is offered; that of course is left to the rest of us who must bear the burden of unwanted children, both financially and socially.

Laura Wilkinson
Lexington Park, MD

Dear FRONTLINE,

How about talking to some post-abortive women. So many do have regret, deep sadness. And it's the pro-lifers who are providing care for them. And it was not emphasized the amount private funding that supports crisis pregnancy centers. And what about adoptive families? They had no voice in this report. Swing it liberal as usual PBS.

Christy Howe

Dear FRONTLINE,

Pregnant women in Mississippi (and the South for that matter) are damned if they do and damned if they don't. They are damned if they terminate their pregnancy and they are damned if they become a parent and need welfare, food stamps or ADC. The damnation is even more extreme if the mother is a minority. Why is there such a double standard where pregnant women in the South are concerned?

Wendi Hinson
Jackson, MS

Dear FRONTLINE,

The documentary was accurate in stating that the pro-choice side is losing. As a nurse, I find more and more young women not just thinking of themselves in the abortion decision, but are also considering the humanity of their preborn child and including them in that decision.

Mary Ho
Wharton, NJ

Dear FRONTLINE,

This was an excellent, informative and balanced program which gave equal time to the pro-life and pro-choice sides. I abhor abortion, and believe it to be murder. That being said, I feel real victory for human kind will not be the over-turning of Roe vs. Wade, but the elimnation of the "need" for abortion through education. Thank you for airing this program.

John Laughlin