To the editor:

I can understand why those who oppose abortion vote Republican. If you truly believe that abortion is murder, then it makes perfect sense. But the same Republican politicians who overturned Roe v. Wade and thus “saved babies” are now killing those same babies by taking food (SNAP) and health care (Medicaid) away from them and their mothers to afford a small fraction of the recently passed tax cuts for billionaires. And that’s only in this country. The demolition of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is expected to cause more than 14 million excess deaths in developing nations, including 4.5 million children under five, by 2030, according to a study published in The Lancet.

To make things worse, Forbes reports: “The number of abortions carried out in the U.S. each month is ‘similar if not higher’ than the abortion rate before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, according to a new study by the Society of Family Planning.” So no babies have actually been saved. In fact, there has been a net loss of babies in the U.S. and around the world since this administration gained power.

This is not to mention that the infant mortality rate in the US is already higher than that of most other wealthy nations. The Associated Press reports that “The U.S. infant mortality rate has been worse than other high-income countries, which experts have attributed to poverty [and] inadequate prenatal care.” These problems are only worsening as SNAP and Medicaid cuts go into effect.

I am not against abortion, which is essential health care, but I am against killing babies. Let’s stop.

Instead of rewarding billionaires for taking food and health care away from children and families, make them pay to keep our babies alive. Attend a Make Billionaires Pay rally at 3 p.m. Sept. 20 in Riverside Park, Saranac Lake, or in another location across the country (https://tinyurl.com/fxpvtm8z).

Shir Filler

Vermontville