I was blessed to give birth to a healthy baby girl many years ago. I know the joy that brings to a woman, especially when you first feel movement. I also know the sadness and depression that follows a miscarriage.

I know that laws are being passed now to severely restrict abortion, even in situations that involve rape or incest. What kind of animal would think this is the right thing to do? Any woman who has given birth knows what pregnancy entails, from the morning sickness to the nesting process and the pain of delivery. But all that melts away when you hold your wanted baby for the first time.

Now imagine being pregnant as a result of rape. Every day you will wake up knowing how that pregnancy was started and you will relive the ordeal. And it continues until the day you are forced to give birth. Then what? What kind of woman legislator would think this was OK? Men get raped too, and that is a terrible thing, but men can't get pregnant. I am sure these men legislators would have a different attitude if they could get pregnant and be forced to carry a child conceived in that manner. These laws are wrong, delivering the message that women don't matter and it's OK to punish the victim.

Kathleen Pagani

Ledyard