Why abortion rights are at risk in Florida | Editorial, Feb. 4

Imagine a teen who wants baby

Let’s say a 17-year-old high-school senior is pregnant. She wants to have the baby and marry the father, but her parents think what’s best for her is to have an abortion and go to college. Does anyone among us think that, in this situation, the parents should get their way? No one? Good, then we all agree: The decision belongs to her — not to her parents and not to the government.

Yet, when the situation is reversed, suddenly people become comfortable with taking the decision away from her and turning it over to a government that turns it over to her parents. These are the same people who are always complaining about Big Government intruding into our lives, yet they want the government to regulate something as private as the relationship between a parent and a child. If you have such a poor relationship with your teenage daughters that they don’t trust you enough to seek your guidance, the government can’t regulate your problems away. You need a family therapist, not government.

If conservatives truly wanted to reduce abortions, they’d take the money they spend on lobbying for unconstitutional abortion restrictions and spend it, instead, on helping struggling mothers provide their children with food, shelter, health care and education; young mothers know they’ll have to struggle to provide these things to their babies and have abortions because they don’t think they’ll be able to pull it off. Conservatives are interested in using the machinery of government to regulate other people’s family dynamics and bring them in line with their ideals.

James Shaw, Tampa

Triumphant Trump points to economy | Feb. 5

Disrespecting the president

Donald Trump is our duly elected president. Love him or hate him, we as Americans need to respect the office, regardless of its occupant. It’s as simple as, if you don’t like America or our institutions, then leave. When the speaker of the House disrespects the office of the president like a spoiled child, this is a new low for the Democrats. Why teach civics to our young when our leadership can’t show basic civility?

Craig Spry, St. Petersburg

Triumphant Trump points to economy | Feb. 5

Speaker was on a tear

Fact-checkers are having a field day debunking most of what President Donald Trump claimed as his economic successes during his State of the Union address. Not surprisingly, his speech contained no mention of the dangers his maladministration poses to future generations. Prominent among them are the effects of climate change, about which he is doing worse than nothing, and the current $23 trillion national debt. That debt is bound to climb indefinitely, given the annual trillion-dollar deficits projected by the Congressional Budget Office. Is it any wonder then that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a point of publicly tearing up her copy of the speech when it was over?

Fred Kalhammer, Sun City Center

Rubio in anti-LGBTQ voucher fight | Feb. 5

Bigotry? Not on my dime

Lost in the argument about scholarships allowing students to attend schools that openly discriminate against some minorities is this question: Whose money is it? In effect, it is ours. Every would-be corporate tax dollar funneled by the Legislature into these schools raises the taxes of the rest of us. Sen. Marco Rubio can do what he wishes with his money, but I don’t want my money used to promote bigotry.

Stephen Phillips, St. Petersburg