LETTERS: ABORTION NO DIFFERENT THAN OTHER FORMS OF VIOLENCE

To the editor:

The John Salvi case is another occasion for columnist Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe to frantically wring her hands at the violence she claims is directed by the anti-abortion movement against abortion clinics and women who use them.

Abortion itself is a violent procedure. In essence, it is a unilateral decision by one person that a human being doesn't count and can be violently removed from the planet. Abortion isn't different in its essential vision from most other forms of violence or abuse.

John Salvi unilaterally declared that women who have abortions don't count and can be violently removed from the planet. Advocates of capital punishment will now declare that John Salvi doesn't count and can be violently removed from the planet.

Violence begets violence: Kill Salvi who kills the woman who kills the fetus. Goodman rightly deplores attacks on abortion clinics. But Goodman shouldn't be surprised at the consequences of the environment of violence her philosophy has helped to create.

JAMES REYNOLDS

Charleston