Issue is complicated

The editorial “Request on Abortion” seems to express the hope that if we just let “We the People” alone for a few decades, the abortion question will be settled. I don’t know how the question will be, or should be, resolved. But this hope, if not specious, is at best very naïve.

Harry Truman in 1948 ordered the desegregation of the armed forces, after Black soldiers had fought in the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the two World Wars. How much longer would it have taken for We the People to get around to this?

Abigail Adams in 1776 famously urged her husband John to “remember the ladies, adding “Remember all men would be tyrants if they could.” The ladies were not “remembered” until the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified in 2020 (though still uncertified), 100 years after the movement began to secure voting rights for (white) women. And even now, women face discrimination in many areas.

Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It addressed voting rights, employment, public accommodations, education, and more. Johnson said, “I know the risks are great, and we might lose the South, but those sorts of states may be lost anyway.”

And he was right. If we had waited until We the People got around to acting in accord with the Constitution, I think some of those rights, probably including those of women, would still be denied.

So don’t try to tell us that a gradual approach to political issues is a good thing. Abortion is a complicated issue, with moral, medical, religious, as well as political considerations. It deserves more than a “wait and see” response.

ETHEL SIMPSON Fayetteville