Regarding your headlines on Sat, Nov 26, "Protesters give toy foetus to schoolgirl".
To start with - this rubber foetus is not a toy - it is a replica model of a 12-week-old foetus.
The "Precious One" card that accompanies it reads "Some people think that my life began at birth; but my life's journey began long before I was born ..." and on the back there is a week by week account of the growth of all unborn babies, which is incredibly beautiful and enlightening.
Thanks to HB Today for so readily showing the little 12-week-old foetus. It would have been even better if the newspaper had also revealed what most Hawke's Bay people don't know - that there are approximately 560 abortions performed in the Hawke's Bay Hospital every year - approx 11 each week! Most of these little babies would be at the 12 weeks stage as shown front page in Saturday's paper.
At 12 weeks the little heart has been beating for 8 weeks, every organ is now present, but immature; brain activity was detected at week 7, and even the little one's fingerprints began to form at 10 weeks. How can we not be in awe of this little miracle!
Maybe it is not well known that abortions are performed on girls of 12 years of age?
The Abortion Supervisory Committee's latest report of 2009 shows there were 79 such abortions carried out on girls of 11-14yrs of age in New Zealand. Probably they were not made aware of the awesome miracle of the life they were carrying within them?
Gwen Story, Taradale
Toy foetus debate
Regarding the 12-year-old given a toy foetus, the girl was not "targeted" by the protesters as the parents say, because the girl asked for one.
Neither is a model of a foetus "disgusting", it is normal human development.
I consider the "Monster High" girls' toys to be much more offensive.
For any person to make the difficult decision to abort a baby, they should first have correct information as to the foetus's level of development, rather than given the label "products of conception" that is used in Hawke's Bay Hospital.
