Regarding “Go nonpartisan,” Jan. 22, Page 31:

It is fundamentally right that we should protect the life of the unborn. But this is an empty mandate if we do not cherish and promote the systems allowing that life to exist. This begins with the pregnant mother’s well-being: health care, nourishment, shelter and safety throughout the child’s in utero development. Then comes the life-sustaining natural environment into which the child will be born and live for the remainder of her or his natural life. Do we make the connection when we insist on the right to life? Do we truly intend that the child will thrive?

Trudie Atkinson

Springfield