Attacks on women

Republican radicals are comfortable introducing absurd antiwomen policy initiatives clothed in their “pro-life” rhetoric. Kansas, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama and other states are facing an onslaught of these attacks on women and their rights to make decisions in regard to their own bodies.

Kansas legislators have gone so far as to make doctors exempt from malpractice suits if they withhold information in order to prevent abortion, even if that information could have prevented a health problem for mother or child. Laws to force women to have invasive tests are being considered. Oklahoma is currently trying to have fertilized eggs be given personhood.

No matter what your personal religious beliefs may be, you have the right to follow those beliefs. You do not have the right to impose those beliefs on others. When it comes to women and their health care, that is, and should remain a private discussion between the woman and her doctor.

The party that claims to want smaller government now wants to have free access to your bedroom and your health records. Tell them to pay attention to our troubled economy and leave women alone.

Mary Ross

Cambria

Support for Japan

On the one-year anniversary of the tragic events in Fukushima, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace invites members of the public to gather to remember and to express our support for the survivors.

The disaster triggered by a combination of the unanticipated size of the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami is not over. Radiation releases from the failed nuclear plants and radioactive waste storage pools continue to contaminate the land, food supply, air and ocean. Close to 100,000 people are still displaced and many families are unable to move away from contaminated areas because neither the government nor TEPCO is giving them assistance in relocating.

Join Mothers for Peace Sunday at 2 p.m. on the steps of the Mission at Monterey and Chorro streets. Art created for the occasion will be displayed. In addition, a young woman, who moved here from Japan shortly after the Fukushima disaster began, and a geologist will speak. A reading of poetry expressing support for the survivors will follow at 3:30 p.m. at the Steynberg Gallery at 1531 Monterey St.

Jane Swanson

Spokesperson, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace

Thanks for the visit

Nice to have had a “FOXy” Ann Coulter on hand locally to explain the right-wing Republican agenda and especially at such a great advantage to liberal Democratic values and causes.

Richard Bruton

Atascadero