SOUNDING OFF:

I strongly disagree with Supervisor John Moorlach’s position on the Planned Parenthood funding. He’s turned a public health/sex education discussion into a local Roe v. Wade analysis.

His personal, religious beliefs should not trump the overwhelming public demand for services offered by Planned Parenthood.

No one is “for” abortion. No one is “happy” about having to have an abortion. No one gets up and smiles, thinking, “This is the day I get to have my abortion.”

But there are times when an abortion is needed.

Moorlach said he’s for small, less-intrusive government. Yet here he is, inserting government into the most private portions of our lives. This is government at its most intrusive.

The woman who runs the alternative clinic that Moorlach and other supervisors support had a choice, and she chose to have an abortion.

She now says that was a mistake. That it turned out to be wrong for her.

That doesn’t mean it will be the wrong choice for someone else. The most important thing was she had a choice and exercised that choice.

Now Moorlach wants to deny that same choice to others based upon an assumption that others will also regret that choice sometime in the future.

At the very least this is presumptive on his part.

To make matters worse none of the money that goes to Planned Parenthood is spent on abortions. It is spent on sex-education programs. Moorlach made this an abortion issue, choosing to ignore the public health issue.

To advocate, and fund, abstinence-only programs is hypocritical. It has been demonstrated over and over again that abstinence-only programs lead to more teenage pregnancies (and therefore more abortions) and increased cases of sexually transmitted diseases.

If what Moorlach is trying to achieve is to have fewer abortions then he should be giving Planned Parenthood more money for sex education programs, not less.

Moorlach should stick to what he does well — fighting the employee unions, safeguarding county funds and procedures — and in the future keep his personal religious beliefs out of my life.

MIKE DUNN is a resident of Costa Mesa.