Show compassion

The new administration is proposing to reduce aid to people around the world. Many countries are suffering from wars, drought and famine. How can we watch children die from lack of food, clean water and medical care when we have the resources to help?

Please join me in donating to agencies that will help the innocent victims. Save the Children and the International Red Cross are two of programs that are doing this important work. The current president does not have the power to stop individuals in our country from showing compassion.

Margaret Wyman

Bend

Support Planned Parenthood

As a board member for Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, I’m writing to support my colleagues’ In My View column (“Don’t Defund Planned Parenthood,” Feb. 24) and to ensure that Central Oregonians and Congressman Walden understand additional facts surrounding this threat to women’s lives:

There is no direct federal grant to Planned Parenthood. Federal funds come from individual patient visits, primarily through Medicaid and Title X, and are no different from reimbursements to any other healthcare provider.

In 2016 alone, the Bend health center provided nearly 6,500 patient visits. If Planned Parenthood was not available, many of those patients would not have access to health care. Community health clinics either do not provide women’s health care or have waiting lists up to two months.

Nationwide, less than 3 percent of Planned Parenthood services are for safe, legal and compassionate abortion care. By law, no federal funds are used for abortion. Without the services provided by family planning programs, the U.S. rates of unintended pregnancy, unplanned births and abortions would be 66 percent higher.

When Texas politicians blocked access to care at Planned Parenthood, it led to a 35 percent decline in women using the most effective methods of birth control. And after Planned Parenthood was defunded, there was a 27 percent spike in births among women who had previously used injectable contraception.

Congressman Walden, I believe you want to support the best interests of your constituents. Defunding Planned Parenthood would have a negative impact on public health and would serve no positive purpose.

Fletcher Chamberlin

Bend

Stop polluters

Suppose I didn’t pay taxes because my contribution is so small compared to the state or national budget. It is trivial — but represents a serious burden on me. Does anybody think this argument would fly as a moral or legal defense of my position?

We allow polluters to dump their toxic waste in our air and our water because it’s free — and processing their waste would cost money and dent profits. So we all pay the price in health, environmental and clean-up costs. Is this morally just?

The lamest argument for Oregon refusing to reduce its climate pollution is the parallel claim that the state pollutes so little that our effort to reduce emissions is meaningless, so we shouldn’t bother. If we want our corner of the globe to be saved, we need to reduce our emissions first. Let’s act now.

Support Oregon SB557 for clean energy and jobs.

Trisha Vigil

Talent

Halt overuse of antibiotics

The New York Times published an article recently warning that antibiotics are becoming ineffective to treat infections in humans. As a person with a chronic health condition and suppressed immune system, I am much more likely to get infections. For me, even a small cold could lead to two infected eardrums. If antibiotic resistant bacteria continue to appear at this rate, soon infections that used to be minor will become life-threatening, especially for a person like me.

One often overlooked reason for this trend is the overuse of antibiotics on large farms to prevent disease rather than to treat sick animals. This practice breeds antibiotic resistant bacteria which are easily transferred to humans, and are especially dangerous to people like me. A bill in the Oregon legislature, SB 785, would stop this routine use of antibiotics on healthy animals, and help protect the effectiveness of life-saving antibiotics. It’s imperative legislators support this bill- for the sake of medically vulnerable populations and for future generations.

Claire Duncan

Portland