Dear Editor,

After 50 years of reproductive freedom, American women are on the verge of losing this constitutionally guaranteed right according to the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

Americans across party lines support Roe v. Wade which guaranteed a woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy. Far right Republican extremists in Washington, D.C., and in Republican legislatures and governorships across the country are passing abortion bans.

Such an overreach is comparable to the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s freedoms.

A woman is not forced to have an abortion in this country. The choice is hers to make. It is so important to the millions of American women of child-bearing age that they have the option to choose a safe, legal abortion, one that is affordable and close to home.

I am pro-choice. I am 83 years old, never had an abortion, never needed one, and have raised a family. I have two young granddaughters of child-bearing age and several great-nieces. I care about them and the millions of young women like them who are about to lose their reproductive freedom. Once lost it will be very difficult to bring back.

The only way to save the right for women to have access to a safe, legal abortion, is for women, and men who care about women, to vote the Republicans out of office and support only Democrats.

Jean Woolums

St. Clairsville