Legislators must prioritize abortion access
As obstetricians who provide abortions, we watched with great heartache as Texas’ SB8 took effect this past week.
With the Supreme Court refusing to block the law, most pregnant people in Texas will not have access to abortion care. Now we await California’s recall election with similar apprehension; elections have consequences for our patients.
Nationally, most abortions do occur early in pregnancy; two-thirds of abortions occur before 8 weeks and 88% before 12 weeks. But many people do not know they are pregnant until after 6 weeks. And most complications affecting pregnancy do not occur until much later.
As states restrict access to abortions, pregnant people will be forced to travel to California and other coastal states to access abortion care.
Now, more than ever, we must select California legislators who prioritize abortion access and ensure that pregnant people can make the best decisions for their bodies, lives and families.
Andrea Henkel, Serena Liu and Kate Shaw San Francisco
Threat of earthquakes
Regarding “Skylines continue to hit new heights” (Front Page, Sept. 9): In his generally celebratory article on high-rises, John King writes of them that “It’s not that security dangers are ignored,” while former planning chief
Dean Macris assures us that “You can’t discard an entire type of building because of the threat of terrorism.”
But there are more dangers than terrorism. San Francisco in particular proves that all cities are not created equal.
During his sojourn in the city, Robert Louis Stevenson observed that fear of earthquakes meant that “the whole city is built of timber a woodyard of unusual extent and complication.”
That remains true today: Downtown is surrounded by tinder, and yet Stevenson’s observation and the postquake lessons of 1906 and 1989 have been forgotten in the relentless drive to build ever higher and denser on ground prone to liquefaction. King should have interviewed the city’s fire chief as well as Macris and others who have a vested interest in a soaring skyline.
Gray Brechin, Inverness
Animal intelligence
I take issue with author of “No fan of horsemeat” (Letters, Sept. 9) who states anyone who has had the privilege of partnering with their own horse knows that this intelligent animal is very different from a cow or a chicken.
First, if intelligence alone were the criterion by which we judge who lives or dies, the way things have been going for the past 18 months, makes me think more people would be killed or eaten than not.
Cows, like dogs and cats, display a wide variety of complex personality types, and they, much like humans, bond with other cows in complex ways.
Cows can become annoyed with each other and even hold grudges.
Cows display long-term memory and can recognize the faces of other cows and humans, years after their initial meeting.
Cows have been known to avoid humans who cause them pain. Much of the same can be said for chickens.
All animals are sentient beings and should not be used for food — horses, cows and chickens included.
Just because the author has had the opportunity to bond with her horse does not mean that other animals should be used for food while horses are exempt.
Anne Gilbertson, Danville
Mystified by ship
Regarding “Coastline in flux” (Sept. 9): Thank you for reporting on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach climate change project. That dredge ship hovering offshore had me mystified!