Imagine my surprise when I saw Julie McDonald-Smith’s “Let’s talk about shame” column draw a comparison between abortion and the Holocaust. I can only assume she quotes Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog “Conversion Diary” on the subject instead of making the assertion herself so she can claim plausible deniability should anyone call her on the carpet. Using every tired trick in the book – Netanyahu, Iran, Wiesel, use of the word “lock-step” (a veiled reference to marching Hitler youth) in describing the relationship between U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and President Obama, McDonald-Smith uses her column as a vehicle for attaching an anti-Semitic label to Pingree.

With regard to abortion, McDonald-Smith wonders, “And what if in the future prenatal testing would tell a woman or a father if the baby would grow up to be gay, and so they wanted to abort?” Well, Ms. McDonald-Smith, what if the prenatal testing showed that the baby would grow up to be Hitler? A conservative wagging her finger at a liberal for terminating a “gay” fetus is both laughable and (as my Jewish ancestors use to say) a shandeh un a charpeh – a shame and a disgrace.

John Sperber
South Portland

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