We are a profoundly divided people. People of good will can fundamentally disagree. Of all of our public disagreements, none brings out the worst in people more quickly than the issue of abortion. The two camps hurl invective across party lines, each accusing the other of terrible things.

There is one thing that I earnestly hope that most Americans can agree on. Measures to legalize third trimester abortions have been pushed in New York and Virginia, and will be advocated across the nation. People who grapple with issues involving what precisely constitutes “human life” often dance around a moral “slippery slope,” when right and wrong become hard to distinguish.

For example, when does a woman’s right to choose become infanticide? When does a mere “fetus” become a human life worthy of preservation, love and dignity? Whether or not we support Roe v. Wade, we must come together and determine answers either state-by-state or as a nation. We must do so tremulously, in harmony with our values and with our Constitution.

Our society desperately needs this, or we will tear ourselves apart.

Ralph K. Ginorio

Coeur d’Alene