While I appreciate people praying about my Pro-Choice position, I resent the assumption that I haven't prayed about it. The bottom line is: I'm Pro-Life, too, but my concern is for more than the 9 month gestation period. It's Pre-Natal through Medicare; not just the 9 month pregnancy, but through age 99, if life lasts that long.

I care about women's health, their access to health services and family planning services. I care about women's protection from any political system that oppresses them and denies them the right to determine for themselves if and when they are ready to become mothers. I pray for people who are still blinded by the old patriarchal beliefs that men can rape and abuse and subject women to their rule.

So please don't assume that because I am Pro-Choice that I am not also Pro-Life. And please consider the possibility that working together we can cut down on the number of and the necessity for abortions. It's women in poverty who suffer the most from unplanned pregnancies and limited or no access to reproductive health services. Women of means will always have access to information on reproduction, contraceptives, and abortions with the simple purchase of an airline ticket. Poor women, more often than not, do not have those options.

Just as I would never ask you, "Why do you hate poor people?" please don't send me anymore questions like, "Why do you hate babies?" Nobody loves babies more than me. It's time we drop the hateful rhetoric and work together to improve the lives of all babies and their parents, the rich and the poor, the ignorant and the educated, the Christians and the non-Christians, the worthy and the unworthy. Let's focus our energies and efforts on those things that are Pro-Life for all.

Mississippians can take a step in the direction of authentic PRO-LIFE by calling Senator Thad Cochran at 202-224-5054 and telling him to support the SCHIP Reauthorization with the ICHIA Provision. Millions of children without insurance need this program which provides access to the health care they need to learn and grow.

To quote Bishop Duncan Gray: How much better would our common life be if we sought less to find the soil on the soul of the other and worked harder to discover the image of God in the one with whom we most passionately disagree.

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart and especially the hearts of the people of this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP)