US must bring to end the global gag rule

When I was 16, I began taking oral contraceptives for debilitating periods. My access to reproductive health care was as easy as making a doctor’s appointment. In many communities worldwide, however, it has never been that easy, and because of restrictive U.S laws, women have been barred from exercising a basic human right: autonomy over one’s body.

Wednesday marked two years since President Trump signed the global gag rule, defunding clinics abroad that mention the word “abortion.” Consequently, entire communities have lost HIV/ STD testing, ovarian-cancer screenings and comprehensive health care. More troubling is the impact this policy has had on reproductive health: Without access to safe and legal abortion, women resort to life-threatening methods like the use of coat hangers, bleach and unregulated pills.

Each year, 31,000 women die from complications of unsafe abortions. I call on Sen. Rob Portman to support the Global HER Act to permanently block the global gag rule.

Sarah Szilagy, Columbus

Recent air travel unaffected by closure

I recently completed a round trip to Denver flying Delta from Columbus during several days when the Transportation Security Administration was supposedly incurring about a 10 percent absentee call-in rate. All I can say is that my experience was anything but negative.

I am a pre-check-approved traveler and found the longest line to be the pre-check line in Columbus. At the Columbus airport, I got to my gate, which is always one of the last gates on the C concourse, in about 15 minutes, and Denver in 25. In Denver, that included riding the underground train to the gates. I was never inconvenienced at all on this trip due to the “government shutdown.”

Cherryl O’brien, Dublin

Past week showed bias on behalf of media

It wasn’t a banner week for the media. From the assault on the reputation of the Covington Catholic High School boys to the denial of the Buzzfeed piece on President Trump, it’s enough to drive one into wearing a MAGA hat.

The hard truth for conservatives is, like it or not, we’ve woken the bear. The bear meaning the media's overt and menacing bias.

For years we limped along, trying to placate the bear, trying to distract it with bread crumbs. Oh, we all knew it was dangerous but we winked at it, saying in effect: “Oh you mean old bear, we know you want to eat us, but we respect your position in society and we’ll go to your White House Correspondents’ Dinner and we’ll meekly apologize for our conservatism if you let us do business with you.”

But two things fatally enraged the bear: One, creating a more friendly, alternative bear (Fox News) to work with. And two, electing Donald Trump, the bear-hater-in-chief.

Now the die is cast. We’ll have to live with a bifurcated media and support good and fair journalism where (and if) we can find it.

Thomas Smith, Hilliard

Some would oppose Trump no matter what

The partisanship today is beyond anything I have ever witnessed in this country. John Mccain ran on a platform of "country first" and was rejected by the voters. So in one sense, we got what we asked for. I get the fact that President Trump can be his own worst enemy, but the shrillness of the Trump-haters is deafening.

Simply standing against anything the president supports does nothing to help this country that some of us still care about. The polls do not favor Trump; how could they? When the left and the media spoon-feed the American public a daily diet of Trump hate, how could the polls be otherwise?

If Donald Trump cured cancer, the headline would be "Trump ignores heart disease." Before I am labeled a deplorable, let me say I did not vote for Trump, but I do believe in fairness and putting country first.

William (Bill) Babbitt, New Albany

Casting problem should be relic of the past

In the half-century since I attended Otterbein University, I would have expected its theater department to not have the same casting challenges of the ‘60s (“Casting concerns stir change with play at Otterbein,” Dispatch article, Thursday). It’s disappointing at best to read that the campus cannot muster a dozen or more students of color who might have interest in theater.

What was odd 50 years ago is woefully aberrant now. How many times can they do “My Fair Lady”?

Stephen Spurgeon, Rancho Mirage, California

Government shutdowns have been politicized

At the time government shutdowns were written into the Constitution, government was small, so a shutdown would have hardly been noticed. It’s a different matter now.

Government manages the economy; provides the life blood. President Trump was elected to manage the government, not to shut it down. He does not own the government; we do. We the People.

It's our government. Even if shutting down is legal, there's a higher principle. Government has to be left alone to get on with its job independently of the quarrels among politicians.

Gideon Fraenkel, Upper Arlington

Energy independence is temporary condition

We should support the solar farm in southern Ohio, not because it will reduce the price of electricity in Ohio (it won’t) and not because it will provide jobs in an area that needs them (that is a side benefit) but because it is time to act responsibly (op-eds, Sunday).

The projected consequences of a 1.5 degrees centigrade increase in global temperature, which is virtually unavoidable, are discussed in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2018 report, which include increased sea levels, droughts, forest fires, extreme weather events and the failure of ecosystems. The impacts on our economy would be substantial but manageable.

But 1.5 degrees centigrade is not where we are headed. Unless we take major steps, quickly, to decrease release of greenhouse gases, we will so exceed the limits of past experience that the ultimate impacts could threaten the fragile fabric of our society. Based on the conclusions of the IPCC study, “deep decarbonization” of our electricity supply represents a rational energy policy to protect the global environment. In this strategy, within a time frame of approximately 30 years, fossil-fuel electric plants would either be replaced with zero-carbon technologies (solar, wind, nuclear) or reconfigured with

carbon-capture equipment.

Although the development of fracking techniques has led to a significant extension of the natural gas/petroleum recoverable resource, that resource is finite. “Energy independence” is a temporary condition.

The longer we can extend the availability of but decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, the smaller the impact on our children and grandchildren when the price of fossil fuels becomes prohibitive. The AEP solar farm is a small step in the right direction.

Richard Denning, PH.D., professor of nuclear engineering (retired), Upper Arlington

Civil-rights movement felt Gandhi’s influence

The Dispatch’s excellent coverage of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 90th birthday elicited rich memories of my participation in “the movement” as a young, white clergyman. Recalling King’s influence on my life and ministry, as well as that of colleagues James Lawson, E.O. Thomas, Otis Moss, Jesse Jackson and Cesar Chavez, I offer a prayer of gratitude for the influence Mahatma Gandhi had on them and the civil-rights movement.

This remembrance centered on Gandhi’s Seven Deadly Sins, as he gleaned them from sixth century Pope Gregory, taught them to the movement’s leaders and offers them in sacred memory to us for such a broken time as this.

According to Gandhi, the Seven Deadly Sins are: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, business without ethics, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice and politics without principle.

In the spirit of the movement celebrated, let us hear and respond humbly, yet courageously.

C. Joseph Sprague, Columbus