Thank you for the July 10 candidate forum on state representative positions one and two. I attended and appreciated the well run format and only wish more voters could have been present to hear the statements of the candidates and to observe them.

The report in The Mirror was very detailed except for “the one issue which best defined each candidate and what we can expect from each if elected.”

The answers to the question I submitted were not included in your piece. The specific inquiry was:

“In order for a woman to discover which candidate can be trusted to best represent her in the state Legislature, we need to hear from each candidate his or her position on choice and other women’s health care issues.”

This is an uncomfortable question to ask and certainly was uncomfortable for several to answer. Reminiscent of a parent trying to discuss the facts of life with a teenager, I think. It certainly separated the wheat from the chaff for those of us who are shocked by the recent attacks from the right-wing Republicans on issues affecting the lives of women.

The efforts to overturn Roe vs. Wade or circumvent it, as in several of the Bible-belt states, has been ongoing. But are they serious about outlawing birth control of any kind? De-fund Planned Parenthood?

These kinds of issues are decided in state legislatures and ultimately in our courts. I carried petitions for Sen. Joel Pritchard and Rep. Bill Chatalas, co-sponsors of the referendum to decriminalize abortion in Washington. We had a state equal rights amendment before the national effort was defeated by these same people. I was there, too.

I want to encourage voters to be brave and ask the hard questions of the candidates for all levels of government as well as judges.  We never know how powerful they may become in some future incarnation.

The only candidates who did not stammer, equivocate or claim to be anti-choice were Roger Flygare and Rick Hoffman.

Patricia A. Artz, Federal Way