Gallup Poll shock: Just 7 percent of Americans have followed the trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell “very closely.”

A Philadelphia jury deliberated four weeks on whether Dr. Gosnell murdered a woman and four infants before issuing a guilty verdict. Is the Gosnell case simply the abortion House of Horrors, or is it “Choice” in full daylight?

Concurrently, our Democrat-led House of Representatives is pushing abortion rights to an extreme with the first mandatory employer abortion-funding: EHB 1044. Failing to pass Senate vote in the 2013 regular session, abortion advocates aim for under way special-session passage.

Sen. Christine Rolfes co-sponsored EHB 1044 over strenuous religious objections from her constituents. In an April 1 Senate hearing, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain decried the abortion bill saying it “discriminates unjustly against churches, religious organizations, and people who for religious reasons oppose abortion.”

As a practical matter for the unborn, both the Gosnell murders and EHB 1044 are differences without a distinction. Contact Sen. Rolfes — (360) 786-7644, email Christine.Rolfes@leg.wa.gov — and remind her all human life is sacred and religious freedom is inviolate.

Sadly, today’s dark variation of Gertrude Stein’s poem “Sacred Emily” must read: An abortion is an abortion is an abortion.

James M. Olsen
Bainbridge Island

Editor’s note: EHB 1044 would require health plans “issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2014, that provide coverage for maternity care or services[,] to provide a covered person with substantially equivalent coverage to permit the voluntary termination of a pregnancy …” You can read the bill and related documents at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1044.