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To the Editor:
As a pro-choice woman, I have long believed in a woman’s right to choose. Devin Carney, our incumbent state representative for District 23, shares this position. For the record, I’m an RN who worked in city hospitals and my focus was in Women’s healthcare and reproductive care.
First off, one must know that David Bingham is not Devin Carney’s constituent nor has he ever reached out to Devin about issues other than the environment.
Like Devin, I believe that the government should not intervene in decisions made between a woman and her DOCTOR. Like most pro-choice women, I also support limitations based on fetal viability with exceptions for when the mother’s life is at risk – Devin clearly stated he agrees.
Connecticut currently bans late-term abortions with the exception of when the mother’s health or life is at risk. This is a fact and Devin supports the current law. The fact that Bingham believes that all-late term abortions should be legal and easily accessible, as is the case only in countries like China and North Korea, is shocking and far more extreme than anything I’ve ever read. Devin’s opponent also feels this way since he shared Bingham’s Op-Ed on his social media.
It never occurred to me that opposing late-term abortions would be called an extremist position – because it isn’t. It’s already a law!
Devin and I agree that the government has a responsibility to protect access, health and safety. Regarding midwives, Devin clearly stated his concerns were with the lack of training spelled out in the legislation and the fact that the very women Bingham seems to care about were the ones who SPOKE OUT against this provision. Do Bingham and Devin’s opponent, white, wealthy men get to decide how Black women, like Senators Pat Billie Miller and Marilyn Moore, feel on this issue? They don’t and should be ashamed for insinuating they do.
Devin and I also share the idea that being pro-choice should not prevent people who are pro-life from exercising their First Amendment rights and offering women counseling and alternatives to termination. As a woman, I find it insulting that extremists, like Bingham and Devin’s opponent, refuse to believe that there are women out there who don’t want to go to Planned Parenthood for counseling or care. They exist.
While the politics of a woman’s right to choose how she manages a pregnancy has become a lightning rod, Devin believes all women should have a true choice about how they will handle one of life’s biggest and most important challenges. A choice that is safe, a choice that is compassionate, and not one borne out of the extremist fear put forward by the League of Conservation Voters Board Chair, David Bingham.
Deb Czarnecki, RN
Old Lyme, CT