A Response to Colleen Matsebula and David Vost

Thank you, Mr. Editor, for allowing me to respond to Thursday's letters from Colleen Matsebula and David Vost. It is excellent that the Times is open to all opinions on issues.

In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama said "I am absolutely convinced that culture wars are so nineties; their days are growing dark, it is time to turn the page." The tone of Matsebula's and Vost's letters indicate that such a time has not yet come.

Ms. Matsebula suggests that I insult the intelligence of Swazis. Far from it. My purpose in writing letters about abortion is so that Swazis would be informed on the issue and not make the same tragic mistakes that Americans have made since 1973.

America kills about 1 million of its own children each year through abortion; that's as many people as live in all of Swaziland. Intimately involved in each of those abortions is a mother, and these mothers are at risk of horrendous injury-physical, emotional, and relational-from those abortions. The people of Swaziland have been incalculably generous and kind to me: from my colleagues at work to students past and present to fellow church members to regular acquaintances in the old market to aspiring football stars at local pitches on the weekends. The wonderful people of Swaziland is one reason I stay here. And the reason I write these letters is that I do not want these or any other Swazi to suffer the devastating consequences abortion brings.

For the record, I have no problem with Mr. Obama's skin colour. If I did, spending 9 years of my adult life in rural Swaziland under Swazi leadership would be a strange place for me to do. It is great that less than 50 years after the end of institutional apartheid in America, a black man can be elected president of the most powerful country on earth. Also for the record, it is immature and underhanded for Ms. Matsebula to suggest I have a problem with Obama's skin colour; let us discuss content and not descend to unbecoming, if subtle, accusations of racism.

When it comes to content, there is no question that the content of Mr. Obama's health care reform bill contains substantial support for abortion. It is true that he signed an Executive Order (EO) that purports to restrict federal tax money for paying for abortions. But all but one pro-life group (the one most closely associated with Mr. Obama's party) in America has stated that the EO is inadequate to address certain aspects of the reform bill with respect to abortion. Most
significantly, the head of Planned Parenthood has called it "a symbolic gesture" and has said that "while we regret that this proposed Executive Order has given the imprimatur of the president to Senator Nelson’s language, it is critically important to note that it does not include the Stupak abortion ban." Note that Planned Parenthood commits more abortions than any other
organization in America; they are not worried about the EO.

Briefly for Mr. Vost: I think it would be great if every US citizen could get health care; I just don't think it should come with an abortion mandate. Abortion is manifestly not health care; it always kills a child, and it frequently injures her mother. As for Mr. Vost unsubtly suggesting I belong to the Ku Klux Klan; note my comment above concerning Ms. Matsebula's comment on that issue.

One more for the record: Hillary Clinton, Mr. Obama's Secretary of State, announced in January that the Obama Administration will push for “reproductive health care and family planning” on a massive scale around the world. In April of 2009 Mrs. Clinton told the US Congress "We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women's health and reproductive
health includes access to abortion that I believe should be safe, legal and rare."

When I write to the Times explaining how Mr. Obama moves on the abortion issue, it is not because I personally dislike him; I don't personally know him, so I can't personally dislike him. Rather, I write to let Swazis know what developments may soon affect them. This great nation deserves better than the death and heartbreak of abortion.