Maryland’s approach to abortion not ‘extreme’

“Absolutist and extreme.” That’s how columnist Jonah Goldberg describes the laws regulating abortion enacted by state legislatures in red and blue states (“Abortion debate is leaving no room between extremes,” May 24), but that’s not the case with Maryland’s law.

It passed the General Assembly in 1991 and was overwhelmingly approved by the voters, 62-38 percent, in a referendum. Under our law, it is the woman’s decision whether to bear a child after consulting with the people she chooses.

That is the case until the fetus is viable, capable of sustained survival outside the womb, in a doctor’s medical judgment. After the fetus is viable, a woman can have an abortion in a limited set of circumstances.

An abortion at that point is permitted only if the procedure is “necessary to protect the life or health of the mother” or “the fetus is affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality.” Parents are given notice in most circumstances when an unmarried minor seeks an abortion.

This law embodies the principles of Roe v. Wade. If the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe, a woman’s right to choose would still be protected in Maryland under this middle ground approach.

Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg, Baltimore The writer, a Democrat, represents District 41 in the Maryland House of Delegates. County needs broader effort to combat opioids

Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski Jr. is right to prioritize combating the scourge of opioid addiction, and we applaud his efforts (“Olszewski announces effort to battle opioid crisis in Baltimore County,” May 16).

However, the task force he has assembled is comprised entirely of hospital representatives. While hospitals play a critical role in treating those in medical crisis due to overdose, the reality is that the great majority of individuals with substance use disorders access treatment in community settings.

Community providers address not only the medical aspects of treatment — including mental health interventions that are part of evidence-based approaches — but also are experts in the co-called social determinants of health such as the lack of housing and transportation.

We applaud the county executive for his initiative but urge him to include community behavioral health providers on the task force. To do otherwise is to focus on only a fraction of the solution.

Lori Doyle, Catonsville The writer is public policy director for the Community Behavioral Health Association of Maryland. Blame city’s failure to update software, not NSA

As a retired information technology professional, I have been puzzled by the calls from elected officials for federal relief for the city’s computing systems being held by ransomware. Recently, The Sun added its voice to those calls (“Feds owe Baltimore more than an explanation if NSA weapons were trained on the city’s computers,” May 28).

Really?

Microsoft provided the fix for the flaw in its operating system that EternalBlue exploits over two years ago. Best practices in the IT industry are to take critical patches from software vendors and have them on test systems (to make sure they do not have any unintended consequences) the week after they are released and have them on production systems within 30-60 days.

That Baltimore’s IT department hasn’t deployed those patches two years later is an unconscionable dereliction of duty. I shudder to think what the state of the rest of the city’s systems are in if it can’t keep up with Microsoft patches.

Rather than call for federal dollars to help the city fix the problem, I would respectfully suggest that Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young call for the IT director’s resignation.

The next challenge the city is going to face is that support for Windows-7 ends on January 18, 2020, and anyone who can’t get patches applied in two years has no business trying to upgrade to a new operating system in the next eight months.

The city needs to man up rather than do what it usually does and play the victim. In this case, it needs only look in the mirror to see where the problem is.