Thank you to Lois Landis for asking to understand more about abortion, contrasting it with the deathly situation in Gaza (Letters, April). I, too, am not Mennonite. I was born and raised in a Jewish family and studied at a Quaker college. I started reading Anabaptist World after joining an effort last July led by Mennonite Action, an interfaith “All God’s Children” march for a cease-fire for Gaza.

The mother’s life and future fertility are at stake in all pregnancies. I believe: 1) The same soul, if not born through one fetus, can be born through another. Many cultures associate soul with breath. There is a process of associating a soul with a body. Miscarriages, grief-bearing though they often are, can be understood as part of this process. 2) God gave life-giving power to some humans, both the physical power to grow and deliver a baby and the mental power to decide when and how to give life. We can see God’s will and wisdom in all the womb-an’s decisions. Legally, I argue for bodily autonomy; spiritually, we can see God as literally placing the decision inside the womb-an: the judgment to decide what is best for all of life, the long-term picture of herself and how she may channel her life-giving energy toward other births and children, not only this one possibility.

The sanctity of life implies holistic thinking. What is more pro-life? Having one baby now in poverty or prematurely? Or having one abortion now and three well-raised, ready-to-be-born children later?

Pro-abortion-rights and anti-abortion people can agree on many things that are wrong, heartbreaking and preventable: Not being able to give a child a sibling solely for lack of finances and parenting support. An infant dying from insufficient breast milk from a starved mother. Young children terrorized by bombs. Children born into a world of blown-up sanitation, water and school systems. I hope God gave us all the will to prevent the destruction of life, just as God gave people with wombs the will to make tough and necessary decisions.

Aliza Shlomit Weidenbaum, Oberlin, Ohio

Many of the women I saw in my medical practice who sought abortions did so only because they did not see another way out: the teenager whose father told her he would kill her if she got pregnant, the mother who struggled to feed her children, the child pregnant due to rape. I vote to allow women access to abortion not because I think it’s good to have an abortion but out of compassion for these women.

It appears to me that lawmakers are mostly wealthy men who “tie up heavy burdens . . . and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4). If they are truly pro-life, they should lift a finger to help, which might include more generous welfare payments and food stamps, health care, gun control and investment in public education.

I applaud churches that provide a home for a pregnant teen or financial support after a birth or in other ways support women and babies who need assistance. Rather than legislating against abortion, I wish God’s love would pour out from our hearts so that fewer women would be so alone and unsupported as to choose abortion.

Martha Yoder Maust, Indianapolis