In a world where there is a dearth of logic and no scholarship, we find letters like that written by James P. Gough of New Hyde Park.
On Nov. 13, the Great Neck News published my essay about “the war on women.”
A week later, Mr. Gough wrote a letter of rebuttal. I have no trouble with folks disagreeing with me as long as their arguments are grounded in fact.
Mr. Gough asks: “Does he [Dr. Sobel] really believe the Republican Party is an all-male political party?” I should not have to defend that statement since I never made it.
I am also faulted for failing to identify the source of the phrase “war on women.” The source is Wikipedia, although it is widely used by various organizations, pundits and politicians.
Included in the Wikipedia definition is the idea that it is the Republican Party which is, for the most part, responsible for said “war.”
I defy anyone who reads a newspaper to seriously claim that Democrats are equally guilty of denying women their rights.
A more serious accusation is that I “insinuate Republicans were responsible for the 1998 bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala. (sic) and the 2009 murder of a Dr. Tiller in Kansas.”
Please, Mr. Gough. Go back and re-read what I actually said. I chose my words very carefully.
What I wrote was: “While these events may not be typical anti-abortion activities, they do represent the extreme factions which exist within the movement.”
To further buttress this point, later on in my essay I point out that “Operation Rescue” (a leading anti-abortion group) uses phrases like “justifiable homicide and “lethal force” in regard to abortion providers.
My point is that persons who claim to respect the lives of fetuses, should be consistent and revere the lives of those already out of the womb, even if they are doctors and nurses performing abortions.
Mr. Gough accuses me of dropping names like Christopher Morley and Arnold Toynbee to imply that these respected thinkers were on my side. This is patently absurd.
When I cite famous individuals it is because the quotation has relevance. Of course, in this instance, neither Morley nor Toynbee had much to say about abortion because it was not a “hot button” issue during their lifetimes.
Mr. Gough further alleges that my letter is “full of nonsense.”
He must have skipped the 12 bullet point proofs that there is a war on women. So let me ask him…is it nonsense to point out that doctors are being harassed by having their pictures on “Wanted Posters?”
Is it nonsense that some states require an ultrasound before permitting an abortion? Is it nonsense that clinics are closing at a rate of 1.5 per week? Is it nonsense that since passage of the 1976 Hyde Amendment 20,000,000 women (mostly poor) have been denied abortions?
Sadly, these are the facts of life. If Mr. Gough wants to think that abortion is “human carnage” and views it as the butchering of human flesh, that is his privilege.
All I ask is that he substantiate his charges. Gough’s treatise reminds me of the line— “Never let the facts interfere with your opinions.”
One further point…I upset Mr. Gough when I wrote about Foster Friess’ saying that, back in the day, women used aspirin as contraception by putting them between their knees.
The fact that Mr. Gough passes this off as “a humorous comment” is insensitive, sexist and, politically incorrect. We used to tell jokes about blacks, Native Americans, gays and ethnic minorities.
Today, most of us know better. I look forward to the day when misogyny is a thing of the past and the “war on women” has been relegated to the dust bin of history.
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
