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Health & Fitness

Open Letter to Rep. Erik Paulsen on Contraception Issues

As we think of motherhood this May, also consider the choice a pre-life soul would make as to when he or she would like to be conceived: when his or her parents are ready, or not ready, to parent?

First, thank you to Jon Collins, editor of Southwest Minneapolis Patch, for inviting me to be one of his first bloggers! It's an honor to write for a technologically forward-thinking online media outlet.

This, my first blog, follows my opinions posted in our Patch in April (, 2, 3, 4). It's in the form of a letter to two key staff of Rep. Erik Paulsen, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District; Jon Jukuri, Paulsen's legislative correspondent and assistant; and Tom Erickson, his press assistant.

The third District covers some 25 Minneapolis western suburbs including Edina, Wayzata, Minnetonka, Deephaven, Excelsior, Long Lake and Orono, which all have “Patches” of their own.

Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Dear Mr. Jukuri and Mr. Erickson,

It is the month of May, a special month for me and all other moms who celebrate Mother's Day. I left you messages by phone and email in April, Child Abuse Prevention Month, to find out Rep. Paulsen's vote in April on House Congressional Resolution 36, which called for no federal funds "to be available for any purpose to Planned Parenthood" nationally and internationally.

Find out what's happening in Southwest Minneapoliswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It was late in the day on a Friday, busy days for us all. Mr. Erickson, you do not have to return those messages because I found the information I was seeking. But I appreciate your work for Rep. Paulsen, and for being there to receive messages such as mine. I went to Rep. Paulsen's web site and was directed to the Library of Congress THOMAS site, where I found his yea vote on HR 36. I appreciate the assistance from the Representative's website. Of course, I had hoped Mr. Paulsen would have voted nay, because, in my opinion, HR 36 should have been rejected by the House. I am glad it was rejected by the Senate and went no further.

However, Mr. Jukuri, I still truly appreciate the time you spent with me on April 4, 2011, my first experience as a volunteer lobbyist. I was sponsored by Population Connection, experts on family planning needs, who trained and advised me to follow up after the initial lobby.

I know that family planning is a very complicated and difficult issue for everyone.

I really appreciate the polite, welcoming and attentive consideration you and everyone in 127 Cannon, Rep. Paulsen's office on the Hill, gave me on April 4. I was honored to be there and it made me more proud of my country. Why? Because it was proof that two educated and well-meaning people, who may disagree on a very heart-wrenching, high-stakes issue, can peacefully and freely discuss it on our beautiful Capitol Hill. And, Jon Jukuri, you patiently listened to me and I thank you for that.

I have been thinking deeply about the concept of literal planned parenthood for about 25 years, since I was in my early years as a reporter, covering the criminal courts. I witnessed hundreds of trials of defendants who usually were convicted of terrible violent crimes, from murder to rape to sexual abuse of a child. My research of those defendants' public probation records showed that nearly 100% had been abused as children themselves.

And that is when I made the link between unplanned parenthood, the resulting unwanted pregnancy, leading to child abuse, and then the abused child growing up and committing murder, rape and child abuse on the next victim. Not all child abuse victims become criminals. But from my thorough research of a telling sample of the criminal population of Southern California, I now believe nearly all criminals were abused children. Abortion, while I believe it should remain legal, is not the answer. In my opinion, abstinence and adoption often are the answers, including the counseling patients receive regularly from Planned Parenthood.

But what to do when abstinence or adoption is not the reality for some girls and boys, or young women and men, who engage in unprotected sex? Accessible and affordable contraceptives are also an answer, in my opinion. Anything to prevent that unwanted pregnancy and hopefully save a born baby or child from abuse, often including murder by the child's own mother or father, or partner of one of the child's biological parents.

Refer to House Resolution 465, non-binding and unfunded but brilliant and necessary, which passed in April 2000. H. Res. 465 “Resolved, [t]hat local, State, and Federal statistics should be kept on the number of babies abandoned in public places.” Why? Because news accounts are innumerable of newborns found in trash bins, public toilets and in the woods. By my own internet research and math about how often a dead baby in found in a public place, one is reported about every four days in the United States. If not dead newborns, it's murder or attempted murder of young children. The last one I heard about was May 5, 2011, when Channel 5 news in Minneapolis reported a mom allegedly pushed her baby in a stroller down a steep flight of stairs at a light-rail station. Oprah interviewed a young mom in prison in recent years. The 15-year-old mom was convicted of stabbing and then dumping her newborn into a bag, then throwing it into an Ohio quarry, to be found six months later by deep-sea divers. My eyes and ears now are wide open for these media reports, and I hear or read them about every other day.

One more note about H. Res. 465 in 2000: it was supported by Republican Michael Castle of Delaware, a forward-thinking House member who this year left his seat, after serving in Congress since 1993. Thank you Mr. Castle.

In the particularly violent region of the greater Los Angeles area where I was working back in the 1980s and '90s, one of the most memorable trials I covered was about a seemingly kind and responsible young man. He shocked everyone by beating and strangling to death his former girlfriend and her mother. The father and husband of the victims later found the bodies in the trunk of the car in his garage. I recall that defendant Richard Moon's own father did not attend his son's double-murder trial. My question was not why did Moon murder, but where was his father?

Years later, after I was a mother of two, I got a surprise call by an attorney on behalf of Mr. Moon, still in prison, hoping not to be executed. The attorney asked if I would submit any statements I remembered about Mr. Moon, statements that may have helped his case. I declined to help, because I feared for the safety of my beloved two children, should Mr. Moon eventually be released and somehow be angry that my statements weren't exactly what he would have wanted. But I was sympathetic to Mr. Moon as a human being, whose father apparently was absent. That was the unspoken tragedy to me.

A quick internet check in April showed that Moon's death sentence was upheld by the California Supreme Court in 2005. Death Penalty News web site quotes Moon in 2005, on death row, saying "A lot of people up here don't feel like they have any self-worth because of where they are." I don't have the time to check further if Mr. Moon already has been put to death. I'm a working mom and my kids will soon need things like lunches, play dates, or money for school and travel.

Once a child is abused, in my observation as a 51-year-old woman, who's met lots of people in the world, it is usually permanent damage on the child's mind and spirit, and leads to mental or literal destruction of self or others. My youngest son this month had to research an animal of his choosing. He began his report: “Mates. The American bison aren't allowed to mate until they tend to other calves.” I'm glad to know the bison have their priorities straight.

If you're still reading this Mr. Jukuri and Mr. Erickson, well-meaning staff of Rep. Paulsen, I thank you for your time once again. I hope we will continue a dialogue.

Sincerely,

Elissa Cottle
Also Known As (AKA): Niece of 3rd District residents and friend to many in that district; woman fortunate enough to have access to contraception, before being ready to parent; heartbroken by countless reports of children murdered and abused in the United States; stunned by innumerable reports of girls and young women bleeding to death daily, while trying to give birth in Africa, leaving their many children motherless and vulnerable to recruitment for harm doing

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