Proposed NC abortion restrictions are just another step toward outlawing it

Abortion bill

Regarding “N.C.. House passes new abortion restrictions, citing eugenics,” (May 7):

The newly proposed abortion restrictions are nothing more than a step towards making all abortion illegal. Making it illegal might make N.C. legislators who support it feel morally superior, but it does not stop abortion.

Do lawmakers really want to return to the days of back-alley procedures?

Eugenics was forced sterilization, and now some N.C. legislators again want to force women to do something they don’t want to do.

It’s none of their business why a woman chooses abortion. If they don’t like abortion, N.C. legislators should start supporting programs that provide free birth control, free prenatal care and aid for single moms.

Anne Bogerd, Durham

Lesson plans

Regarding “N.C. GOP lawmakers want to require schools to post online what they’re teaching,” (May 5):

Republican-sponsored legislation in the N.C. legislature seeks to achieve “academic transparency” by requiring teachers to provide an online posting of lesson plans. The goal is to assure parents that students are not taught to “believe something other than the facts.”

This ”Academic Transparency” bill is advancing while most Republicans and many of their Congressional leaders continue to promote the Big Lie that Donald Trump “won” the 2020 presidential election.

Meanwhile, some Republican legislators in other states are promoting the absurd claim that the Three-Fifths clause in the original US Constitution — which counted enslaved people as 3/5 a person for the census while also denying them every right of citizenship — was actually part of a long-term plan to abolish slavery.

What will happen when unhappy politicians or parents denounce teachers who rightly condemn such falsehoods as blatant historical lies? Will legislators be required to explain why they “believe something other than the facts?”

Lloyd Kramer, Chapel Hill

NC prisons, COVID

More than 10,000 incarcerated people in North Carolina are known to have been infected with COVID-19, more than a quarter of the state’s prison population.

Yet, vaccination rates in N.C. prisons have lagged: Only 18% of incarcerated people have received at least one vaccine dose and the Department of Public Safety is already running out of people willing to get vaccinated.

DPS must act quickly. By providing compassionate release to those at high risk of severe disease or death who are behind bars for nonviolent crimes, the state can quickly reduce population density and transmission risk.

To encourage vaccination, DPS should also bring in outside providers who can present culturally responsive, timely and accurate information about vaccine safety.

Camilla Dohlman, Chapel Hill

Housing inequities

Regarding “Tech firms bring jobs, growth challenges,” (May 3) and related articles:

Recent articles should dispel some of the romance involving growth in N.C., namely that it’s a variation on trickle-down economics with benefits accruing to lower income segments of society.

This view doesn’t take into account the role rezoning plays in gentrification. The perception that an area is a desirable place to live raises rent and property tax rates to the detriment of longtime residents or those of modest means who want to move in. Longtime residents who manage to stay could find the attitude towards them has changed. Gentrification is often accompanied by tear downs as historic homes are demolished to make way for grander houses.

Whatever else they accomplish, rampant growth and development will not help with the lack of affordable housing and the growing inequities in the Triangle, and could even make them worse.

Lynn Kohn, Durham

A mother’s plea

This Mother’s Day I am happy to be alive and well after being diagnosed with a rare bone marrow disease. My recovery has been long and slow.

My reason for writing: I want people to know that their vaccination against COVID makes a big impact on people who live with serious illness.

Those who are weighing vaccination must think of the thousands of fellow Americans who are depending upon them to make the right decision.

We all want to return to our lives. Please, get the vaccine to protect the doctors and nurses who care for you when you need help. Get it for the children who need to return to school. Get it for people like me, who just want to see their grandchildren grow up.

Karen Moorman, Durham

This fox is a terror

My Meadowmont neighborhood has been terrorized by a fox that menaces residents as she guards her six kits. She roams, chases pets and older folks (me) daily as she takes refuge under a neighbor’s porch.

Animal Control will only assess a pet that might have been touched by the fox, whereupon all manner of rules are imposed on the pet owner but no action is taken against the fox.

The fox chases me inside and makes it impossible to sit on my back porch with my pet. Must someone be bitten or mauled before legislation is passed that will protect these animals in the wild, but not in heavily populated neighborhoods?

Barbara McLean, Chapel Hill