As a woman, I found the opinion article “I survived the war on women” a bit simplistic and narrow in its scope, with its focus on pro-choice.

As the article described, women should be treated, and carry themselves, with dignity and respect. Accurate education on sexuality is important and a woman’s unique ability to conceive should also be treated with the utmost respect (“an all-male panel of ‘experts’ addressed birth control for women”).

However, I believe this war continues, and the troops and casualties are made up of individual, beautiful lives.  Societal pressures continue to objectify women. Hats off to the recent article and attention on human trafficking. Women continue to wrestle with the ability to conceive.  For some who chose abortion, perhaps under societal pressure, they may end up fighting an internal battle of remorse and guilt, a war not so easily recognized.

Seeing my friends’ heartache years later reminds me of that war and wondering if things could have been different. For the mom who longed to conceive only to lose her baby through an ectopic pregnancy, that grief seems unbearable as well.

Then there is the woman whose religious beliefs keep her from aborting a baby conceived from date rape. She has the baby and gives her up for adoption, fighting this battle for dignity and respect in a different way.

I hope her daughter, one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen, can grow up in a society where her whole worth is realized, she will not be objectified, and is free of the fear of what her mother experienced.

No matter how pro-choice society becomes, I think the war on women continues.

Dory LeVander, Federal Way