Following up on my letter to the editor

I submitted my letter to the editor about county government funding "All Options" Pregnancy Resource Center and Planned Parenthood on June 21. After multiple emails and several phone calls, and sending more documentation, it was finally printed on July 23 - over one month later. I have never had this much trouble getting a letter published, and I have been writing letters to the editor since 1996.

Even then, it was not published intact. The editor removed a line with hyperlinks to the applications by "All Options" and Planned Parenthood. There is no good reason to remove this, because these applications for taxpayer funding disbursed by elected officials are public record. In fact, those two hyperlinks were critical elements of the letter.

The editor also changed the word "babies" to "fetuses" in the line where I said PP "kills over one thousand babies every single year, right here in Bloomington." It has never been a problem to use the word "babies" to describe unborn babies in the 23 years I have been writing letters to the editor, and I was not notified that this change would be made.

Leftists in HTO comments squealed with delight over the change, because "fetus" is allegedly the more "accurate" term. I know this argument has been repeated so often it is a cliche, but no pregnant woman talks about her "fetus." She talks about her "baby." When a miscarriage tragically takes place, we recognize that a woman lost a baby. It would be highly insensitive to insist on the "medically accurate" term "fetus" in that scenario. With late-term abortion, the difference between a "fetus" and a baby is about 18 inches.

The only reason to change the word "baby" is to lessen the sting of conscience, certainly not for any concern for "accuracy." This does not bode well for the future.