Tim Knapp's letter of April 9 was hilarious. Using his theory, the state could dictate what church you attend, or even force you to attend church against your will. They could force you to marry, and force you to have children because the bible says: "Be fruitful and multiply." Taken further to the extreme, membership in a certain political party could be banned because its positions are different and violate the "values" of the other party.

His argument that murder, traffic rules and theft, are meant to protect people is correct, they are meant to protect "others". What pro-birthers want is to dictate the medical rights and judgments of a woman, her family, and her doctor.

As for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, space limits my response, but they are an extremist organization that spread lies about using fetal and umbilical stem cells for abortion research and even advocates lying to advance their pro-birth agenda in the making of state laws. This is picking and choosing morality, isn't one of the commandments: "Thou shall not bear false witness?" Finally, he dodges another point, lack of the "moral" obligation to care for the child once born as when Idaho turned down federal grants to support day care for all those birthed children.

Oh, and by the way, the leading cause of death of children ages 1 -18, is guns. But what do we see, the extreme right wanting to make guns even more common, How does that jive with the pro-child stance? Again, these folks seem to care about is birth; once the child is here, they're on their own.

LAWRENCE FURY

Sandpoint